bumblebee

I tried tracking down the font on the Ballard Star Checkers box but could not get the R to match. The box R has an odd, almost unnatural angle to it.

I find the bottoms of the Ballard Star Checkers and Akro 100 boxes remarkably similar in their aging details, from the white base coat, the worn edges, scratches, and then a faint brownish stain here and there that is exactly the same color on both. Again, I don't own any original boxes like these, but my assumption at a glance is that the same manufacturer made both box bottoms, and it appears both box bottoms aged (naturally or artificially) in similar ways in similar environments.

The GAR fonts are too generic to say, but I would bet the house the Scouts box is a contemporary fake. I don't have enough reference photos of original boxes from that era to go much further. These boxes all seem sort of "lumpy" to me. Did you notice the surface scratches and damage on the GAR box were very similar to those on the more realistic looking Akro box that was also ended? Seems like somebody just scratched to and fro. Here is a slightly enhanced photo. Could be a coincidence, but...

My hunch about the font on the Boy Scouts box was correct. It appears to be Arial Narrow, which I think originated in 1990. I was able to freshly type it on my paint program right over the box type with a perfect fit. There was a bit of skewing due to the original photo but it appears they even kept the default line and character spacing. Edit: Notice their "Silver Jubilee" font appears somewhat condensed vertically, whereas the "June 30..." text is vertically the same as my freshly typed one. I am assuming this is simply evidence of photoshopping where the "Silver Jubilee" might have been resized in bitmap mode.

Who knew the old timers had access to the 1993 Brush Script MT font on their pedal-powered Windows 0.1 PCs when they were making those old boxes ...?

I'm calling it a lemonball.

Yeah those fonts look very modern. I'm sure I have a couple of them on my PC right now, particular that slender one used for the dates.

We have a big piece of natural corprolite which my father inherited from his mother, and which is affectionately known as the family jewel.

I like to credit young blood in the hobby for giving Vitro the love it deserves as well as Peltier Rainbos. I spent 60% of my money at the last marble show on Vitro. Even Masters are coming out of the closet. I find so many pretty Akro patches overlooked due to cork and Popeye fever. I always want more melonballs and white slags.

The bigger pale greenish German handmade in the left jar below the purple slag?

Monster on left is 15/16", originally owned by Bo Stiff I believe. I did get a 1" after this photo was taken. I really like Masters but I have to fault them for being too "brownish" in general, but once you escape the brown they can become amazingly brilliant, particularly the meteors (or is it comets, or both?).

Here's a Masters family photo.

Those are so pretty my eyes hurt.

I verified with them that those "precision" ones like the corkers are about $4 each, which seems crazy at 5/8". Must be a lot of labor in grinding them down.

Your reply gave me my first real lead, so thank you! Here are close-ups of all the animals. http://imgur.com/a/JfTMp Amazing detail for their size, and I really cannot believe they survived all these years given the fact that they were among a lot of board games that were heavily played with!

I did some more research and these seem very much like "dresden paper ornaments", especially given the fact they have the thread loops on their backs.

Thank you, Winnie! That's the first real information I have on them. I still cannot find a mark anywhere beyond "Printed in Germany" and "No 1666" on the instructions. These figures are very fragile. It's a wonder they survived so long as toys. I am not sure whether mine match the catalog link you sent me. The boar looks very familiar.

This came from an estate with several 1930s era board games. It is made in Germany and appears to have never been built. It consists of cardboard and wood and then these animals figures which may look like plastic, but are very light and delicate and appear to be made of two halves of paper pulp pressed and painted. Each animal has a little thread loop on its back as if for hanging. (One of the animals, the fat elephant, is made in Japan and of different material--probably thrown in there later). Any ideas on who made it and when? I tried Googling the animal figures and could not come up with similar figures.

Since some people claim to be in contact with the original finders, why not ask them to issue an anonymous statement of facts surrounding the find? They can keep their anonymity and the collecting community can benefit from a very vital piece of marble history.

I'm guessing 60s. They said the family was very "crafty" and played a lot of games. There was also a huge wooden doll house, fully furnished, that looked to be from that era.

Neat...I rarely find MK marbles in the wild but I don't know why. This was at an estate sale where the owner collected hundreds of cuckoo clocks, piano rolls, and 78rpm records. I asked whether they had marbles and they produced a coffee can with just these and a few game dice. $7 was worth it. Just wish he hoarded marbles instead of cuckoo clocks!

Found these at an estate sale today and was charmed by the clay handmade marbles (not antique but still charming). Somebody clearly tried to make them swirls. Can anyone tell me what era/type these MK are? I have another 100 or so of the same style. I was thinking 60s or 70s?

One vote for John McCormick's marbles being superior to the "exotics" pictured thus far.

Does anyone else have one of these? It is a faceted double bullseye agate. Looks like an owl. This one was dug from a late 19th-century privy. I lovingly refer to it as the "pooper shooter."

For those who believe they are genuine, what are your theories about the colors and the low quantities? Would CAC have mixed up tiny batches of glass and run them through their equipment for just a few dozen marbles that they never sold or even gave away to local children? Wasn't it a lot of work to clean up and start new batches with new colors? Maybe these were prototype marbles near the end of the company's life? They are so beautiful it would seem some employees would have secreted away a few hundred if they were all being dumped, right? People had good visual taste back then too. What are some other speculations?