tony

Could not tell you if this bakelite or not,but it is made from a very hard brittle type plastic.My first thought was one of those magnetic marbles,but its not magnetic.It is moulded using a two part mould,and possibly printed with a design at one time.I kept it because it came with a group of vintage marbles,but have always thought of it as a gaming piece.

Sparklers are commonly found in the u,k.Usually they are mixed in with cats eyes and vintage swirls.I assume because they look a bit like cats most people assume they are.I can remember as a kid in the 70's playing with them,even my mates had them,but they were not new marbles even then.The ones with oxblood stripes in them were always prized and were keepers, and many other vintage marbles were prized by us as kids,because they were diffrant from what we could buy as new in the shops,noticably cats eyes.So if anyone wanted to play keepsies with anything diffrant then the common cats eyes,it was always an epic game and many kids including myself went away heart broken or very happy.Its gone and got me all nostalgic now. The sparkler of interested has been described as type 4,which is a clear base type with fine fillaments of blue and white,and sometimes purple and white.They resemble the american sunbursts only not as pretty.I believe some of these were unearthed in an archeological excavation of a bombsite from the last war.The excavation was a part of the Time Team series of programs.Has anyone else seen this program and can confirm if these marbles are indeed type 4. Its interesting as Britain was pretty much an island fortress during that time and cut off from mainland europe, it may suggest that they were being produced from the latter part of the 1930's onwards.

Problem with where I live is that all machine made marbles are imported from somewhere,The questions I am always asking is where from and how old.

Come across two companys that still make marbles simular to the ones in the photos.thought you might like to check them out. The first is Changzhou Shihao International Trade Co,Ltd.They apparently ship mostly to Europe and North America.They are based in Dingyan,China. The other company is Singhania and Kapadia MFG,Co.Based in Delhi India.Founded in 1954,and still producing a wide range of marbles.Some of these are quite nice and seem to resemble american types .Their main market is also North America. Both of these company's were found in internet trade directories for China,and India.There are a few other companys one is A Glory Mfr Corp of Taiwan who have a couple of types simular to Vacor. It seems worthwhile looking at these trade directories as quite oftern they show some of the items they produce,althow the graphics are usually low resolution,so they don't look that good when blown up.The best way would be to try to get some varified marbles in the hand to compare others against.Problem i find is that even with new marbles,even the dealers don't know who made them most of the time.

Seems as if the marbles may of been sourced from all over the place.China could be a possibility for the Empire marked pieces,but India was the jewel in Britains crown.Many companys that operated from India were set up by British companys,many are still going,dispite not being British owned.Its just a thought as marbles are produced there today.Hong Kong and China are other strong contenders,no doubts about it. I wonder if any of Cowen De Groots archives still excist,as it could give a few clues?.

Hi all. my idea of British made these days would be made in England.I assume if we go back to the commonwealth period then made anywhere within the british commonwealth.Question is where were they made,or were they just packed in britain. Codeg (Cowen De Groot) was more of a general toy company making and selling all types of toys from board games,tin plate,and later the now collectable Dr Who Daleks from the mid 1960's.personally i cannot see all the componants to these toys being made in England,so i expect they were just assembled or packed here.I don't know when they started in business but they were certainly active from the 1940's.Have a feeling that Cowen De Groot may of merged with two american toy company's in the Early 1990's.One of these may of been Dekkertoys.Cannot remember where i saw that,so its worth chasing.The Codeg box certainly has an early post war feel to it,and would love to see more of these,and the marbles they contain. Now those Irene mib's look familiar.I brought several thousand marbles from a chappy last year when i started to collect marbles. They were his and his childrens collections,all modern types but lots of variety which was the big pull for me at that time.Amongst them were hundreds of purple,pale blue,and some green types very simular to those finely swirled types in the picture.I am still assuming mine are modern ones.Could the same company still be producing them for someone else?.

Hi there. Thats an interesting box of marbles.British made?.Tell me more........Please. Has anyone else come across them before?