Master Marble Co.
Master Glass Co.
1930 – 1941
1941 – 1974
The Master
Marble Co. was founded in Clarksburg, WV by three veteran employees of the Akro
Agate Co.: Clinton F. Israel, Claude
C. Grimmett and John E. Moulton. A
fourth longtime Akro employee, the inventor John F. Early, joined the company a
short time later. Early had designed
many of the marble machines at Akro.
They were
off and running very quickly. They
opened in May 1930 and were already shipping in October.
A January 1931 ad says, "Preferred above all others by the
marble-shooting 'stars' of boydom".
They had
the good fortune to win the marbles concession at the 1933 World’s Fair in
In 1941 the
company reorganized. The Master
Marble Co. closed and the Master Glass Co. was started in the nearby community
of
Their most
famous marbles as the Master Marble Co. are their sunbursts, sometimes confused
with Akro’s Sparklers. However, if
you consult the guides carefully you should soon be able to tell the difference
in most cases. Other famous
varieties are their Meteors and Comets.
These can be more difficult to distinguish from Akro’s similar lines, the
Moss Agates and Royals. It is not
surprising that there are similarities considering Master’s shared heritage with
Akro.
As the
Master Glass Co, their marbles had less distinction.
Wartime restrictions, postwar glass prices and foreign competition caused
all marble makers to deal more with recycled glass and to economize in other
ways.
Master
Glass was one of many who produced a version of cat’s eye, in competition with
the Japanese marble style which took the
The Master
Glass
More
information:
American Machine-Made Marbles,
2006, Dean Six, Susie Metzler and Michael Johnson