Ric

Alox marbles are tough, since they bought a lot of marbles from others even early on. I seem to recall that when the factory building and contents were auctioned off there were a lot of old bags and headers sold but not many (if any) marbles. So some of these bags were likely back-filled by others. There are also reproduction headers around. And if I remember right, there is some small difference in the Alox Mfg - St. Louis line that you can use to tell them apart - sorry I don't remember the details.

Hi Winnie, Those are nice Rainbos - I like the clear-based ones too. I think I have heard them referred to as Fruit Cocktails but I could be wrong. If I am, I am sure someone will let me know.

Perhaps it was Eugénie and simply misspelled in some places? Have you ever seen her name spelled any other way?

Nice pic, Bob. It is other-worldly. As for a preview, I think the post input box is pretty much WYSIWYG.

It's Darwin Day tomorrow. This is probably one of the more well known pages from his notebooks. If you are interested in his life and work, Darwin Online is the place to go.

. . . a dandy marble, for sure.

I have no pics but I have seen similarly packaged cat's eyes in a Dollar General store within the last year or so, and I have a similar bag (from K-Mart, I think) buried in a box around here somewhere (probably 1970s). Both contain Asian cat eyes, so it seems like this sort of packaging has been around for quite a good while.

If you are referring to old German swirls, here are some pics from a google search:

Excellent article. Do you know the year of publication?

And a nice little hand-faceted agate too - just for fun. And an FYI: Apparently you can just paste a link to a picture in the message and the pic will show - no need to go through the 'insert other media' tab.

Dang job-stealing technology!

I found this (5/8") together with a bunch of old agates, German swirls and clays. I think it is polished natural yellow limestone with manganese banding (Gartley and Carskadden, p. 105 & Fig. 53). According to the authors, it appears the stone "was being used for marble making in the second and third decades of the 19th century, and perhaps even later." They also claim, " . . . not many of these marbles are found on archaeological sites or in private collections". Does anyone have a feel for how common they are? Does anyone else have examples to share? Thanks for any input!

This is very cool, I am really looking forward to seeing what comes off the rollers. Let me know if you need (are desperate for) a cut-off man. lol

I stand corrected. Thanks Duffy!

I think they are atypical 5-vane Vitros. I have seen others that are similar.

Try pressing the control and plus keys together once or more, Ann. It'll take a while to get comfortable but it seems cleaner and I think I'll like it just fine - seems like there might be some improved functionality and ease of use too. But then, I try to embrace change, since it's the only thing you can really count on. And while I'm here, it's a good time to be sure that Lou and Steph know . . . I really do appreciate the forum and all you do to keep it running smoothly!

You have no idea how bad I want a big fat bagel with 1/4 lb of lox and cream cheese on it, right now, and I am at least 75 miles from the nearest place I could get one . . .

Sugar Cream Pie is a sweet vanilla custardy/cheesecakey thing (the official pie of Indiana). The fruit was exceptionally tasty stuff I gathered in the wild and froze away last spring/summer. I can collect enough raspberries around here to float a boat, but I have found only three decent wild (woodland) strawberry patches on our property. It takes about 20 berries to make a handful but they are much better than the octaploid behemoths that are typical, IMO.

It's new to me too - nice find!

. . . a slice of sugar cream pie topped with strawberries and black raspberries. MMmmmm good!

Very cool! I like when there are lots of marbles - the chaos is fun.

7/8" and 31/32"

Nothing better than an eclectic group of vintage and antique marbles . . . and a nice salmon corkscrew too.

1 1/2" beater I just can't throw away . . .

I think Euro on the first one and non-American transitionals on the others - all nice marbles, but that purple one is great.