mibstified

Mostly mibs with green..........

.......with "yellow highlights"..........

Ditto on not being sure how rare this mib is but can't be to many like it around......

Sweet!!

Here is an amber based ST pics on the right are backlit........

All from Bill Tow's Marblearium back in the day............

Pink is a tough color. This mib is a mystery mib......transparent yellow base with cream and "pinkish" opaque swirls.

Hey Bill, Maybe using Cambridge Glass as their primary (if not dedicated0 source of raw materials, required a level of proof testing that other makers using more traditional sources for their glass, did not need to undertake.

"Can you see why one of the thoughtful speculations is that the exotics were really hand-gathered color compatibility tests with no production intentions?

Hence, low quantities and no cullet?"

John McCormick

"Shamrock Marbles"

Happy Easter everyone!!

John........if, as you have thoughtfully speculated, the SOs and STs in question were actually color compatibility test mibs, it would have made good business sense for the plant to save and catalog them as color combo marble examples that either worked or didn't work, as part of exercising good QC and product development practices. If management wanted to try a new glass combo, they would have their fully documented test mib samples to guide their efforts. It would be reasonable for there to have been quite a collection of these compatibility sample marbles (and probably marble halves for formulations that did not work out), generated and cataloged over time. When the plant was closed, what would have happened to these samples? Regardless of whether a cache of these mibs may have been found in the ground or in someone’s attic, this hypothetical could explain how they may have surfaced as a cache of mibs that had never been previously seen before.....Bill

Interesting............can't beat detailed first had perspective. Besides small particulate, that does resemble dirt or combustion byproducts, the mibs I have with surface debris also have small pieces of what looks like reddish brick. Are present day kilns lined with the same kind of refractory as the kilns that vintage marble makers would have used back in the day, or could the type/color of embedded refractory help to determine if a mib was likely vintage or contemporay?

Exotic Bird of Cambridge shooter.........Caw, Caw, Caw.........:-)

And like a biopharm "clean room".........environmentally contolled conditions........nice clean (electric?) furnace.........no source for possible refractory debris surface contamination of the gorgeous mibs John produces............just say'n........:-)

Thanks fior the further explanation John!

Here are a few more with interesting cut lines.......

So a single cut line (single seam) mib would (or could) have been processed the same way except without the initial "nip", timing the glob drop to start falling just after a passing shear blade? Trying to visualize...... If you had a singnificant volume of glass on the punty, you could get maybe 2, 3 or more marbles from the same hand gathered glob, with the first one singe a seam or nip/cut mib and the ensuing mibs full doulbe seamers?

Here is a (complex) road and tunnel CAC SO with a little refractory surface debris..........sweet imperfection.

Hey Dennis......Sorry for the confusion. I was answering disco005's comment about the orange & green SO pic that I posted. I do like your pink fancy benny.......HTF mib!

Yes, it is a great electric color combo......thanks.

Thank you kbobam!

How'bout pink by virtue of back lighting an Akro royal blue flinty cork screw.........

Almost out fo time for orange.........

AT&T............