AKRO
AGATE CENTER-HOLE SLEEVE BOXES
By George Sourlis
Akro’s sleeve boxes can be categorized in several ways.
They come in 3 widths. There
are the single-width sleeve box like the No. 16 box, the double-width sleeve box
like the No. 32 and the one and only triple-width sleeve box, No. 64 (Plate 1).
PLATE 1 TYPICAL AKRO
SLEEVE BOXES
Some sleeve boxes are numbered and some are not.
Akro put box numbers on its smaller boxes starting in 1927.
Prior to that the numbers did not appear on these boxes.
The No. 16 and the No. 112 sleeve boxes (Plate 2) are examples of
long-lived sleeve boxes that cross this date line.
Unnumbered boxes usually come with slag.
Numbered boxes may come with slags or corkscrews.
Sleeve boxes from the 1940s may contain Akro patched marbles – royals or
tricolors.
PLATE 2 NUMBERED vs.
UNNUMBRED SLEEVE BOXES
There is a small group of these boxes that I call center-hole sleeve
boxes (Plate 3). These boxes contain
assorted sizes of marbles, and all are double-width boxes.
One is unnumbered and shown in ads from the early 1920s (Plate 4).
The small No. 112 box has a numbered and unnumbered version.
The No. 88 and No. A-112 boxes do not appear to have an unnumbered
version – yet. Up to this time only
these 4 boxes have been discovered in this category.
PLATE 3 CENTER–HOLE
SLEEVE BOXES
Why the center hole in these boxes?
In the center of each there was supposed to be a No. 2 or No. 4
shooter-sized marble as described in the details in the ads below (Plates 4 &
5). Also remember that all of Akro’s
sleeve boxes were categorized by the company as display boxes.
What better way to display the contents than to open up more of the top
of the box with a center hole?
PLATE 4 1921 AD
PLATE 5 CIRCA 1914 FROM
THE FIRST HARDY BOOK
These sleeves are NOT usually found with a No. 2 or a No. 4 marble in the
center hole. Packaging boxes this
way required a specific packing order.
This was slow compared to just throwing in 11 or 13 marbles of assorted
sizes without a shooter. It slowed
production. (Note that the No. 88
box in Plate 3 does have a no. 2 slag in the center hole.)
The packing size-wise is quite varied, especially in the small No. 112
box. I have even seen two No. 112
boxes that had 1 less marble than they were supposed to have.
At first I suspected that the packaging was not original or in error.
Later I examined the marbles in another collector’s No. 112 box.
As I tried to put them back into the box and close the end flap, one
marble came out of the center hole and fell into my lap.
It was only 9/16” in diameter (No. 00).
I have no ads specifying the packing in the No. 88 box or the No. A-112
box. Since the No. 88 and the small
No. 112 boxes are the same size, I suspect they were packed alike each having 6
No. 1s and 4 No. 0s. The unnumbered
box and the No. A-112 box are close to the same size, the later being ¼”
shorter. However, the unnumbered box
has quite a bit of extra space when it holds 12 No. 0s.
So I think these 2 boxes were also packed alike.
The small No. 112 Appears from time to time in auctions or at marbles
shows. The other 3 are very
difficult to find. I have seen and
photographed more than 130 boxed sets of marbles, but I know of only 2 No. 88
boxes and 2 of the unnumbered yellow and red center-hole sleeve boxes.
I am an avid watcher of the Running Rabbit auctions, but I do not recall
seeing either of the red and yellow boxes in any of the first 51 auctions.
I want to thank Charles and Diane Brandstetter, Lester Jones, Lynn
Collyar and Michael Muehlbauer for letting me use pictures of their boxes in
this article. –END-