BobBlock

I thought the 3 was silent :-)

I've always categorized Sparklers under the Catseye type, since the its the same basic process to make them.

I have a pack of marbles from a craft store that are already crackled. I guess it saves you the trouble (and joy) of doing it yourself.

This is a French game. I sold one in one of my auctions back in the very early 1990s. That one came in the original box. It's called either the Apple Picker or the Orange Picker, depending on the box you find. I have one of these and played it with Martha Stewart when I was on her show back in 2001. There's video of that floating around on youtube somewhere. Mine uses a little cloth sack filled with lead shot as the counterweight instead of the larger metal weight.

Excellent!! Good job!

Yes, although overcoating is more common. I'm not a glassworker, but maybe it is easier to overcoat than to remelt. I've seen sulphides overcoated in clear, as well as various colors.

http://www.nature.com/news/early-exposure-to-germs-has-lasting-benefits-1.10294 and of course breast-feeding infants

Horseshoes are a symbol of good luck, which might be why they were on the game. That symbolism might also be related to the name of the candy.

Here is the story in English on the CNN website http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/04/world/europe/anne-frank-toys/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

I think the last name is Franke

Hansel's correct, I meant to type agateware not mochaware. Old age creeping in.

Looks like some mochaware types that I have.

I've bought two of these over the years, and still have both. One I purchased in England, the other I bought from a dealer here (who also got it from England I think). One of them has the brown "lutz", though as someone mentioned above it is not glass.

Thanks for the feedback. My contract with them is over after the next auction, and I'm moving to another provider. Their java is very flaky.

There were a lot of bargains in the end of day category last night

Bump. The auction is tonight.

Remelted marbles tend to have a pattern of slight ridges evenly spaced running around the marble, or are smooth, as opposed to a random pattern of marks.

I don't think these are used by kids. I think they are being produced to sell as old marbles in the West

They are coming out of Germany too, sourced from Bulgaria.There was a guy from Germany on Facebook who emailed me trying to sell these to me. Said they belonged to his great-grandfather... yadda yadda yadda. His Facebook profile picture was of him in front of a huge Nazi flag. You can't make this stuff up!

The catalogue and images fro Marble CyberAuction #1110 are up on my website and on iCollector. The auction will be held online starting at 8PM NYC time on Sunday December 8. You can place absentee bids at iCollector (see link below). Here's the links and some images. 135 lots of handmade and machine made marbles. Wish I had time to catalogue more, but work's been busy. http://www.marblecollecting.com/marble-auctions/block-s-marble-cyberauctions/ http://www.icollector.com/auction.aspx?as=29978

The full game set pops up in the UK auctions a few times a year and very occasionally on Ebay. A full set, fairly complete, in pretty good condition is going to run 400-600 pounds

The term used for the game boxes they came in is "game compendium". If you search auctions, especially in England, you can find them for sale sometimes, occasionally with the marbles included. When you find them in the game compendium, the marbles are usually onionskins, not swirls, which I've always found kind of odd. They also tend to include checkers (draughts), whist, horse racing game, chess, and various counters, dice and chips. Occasionally these boxes are referred to as Captain's Game Sets, under the belief that they were carried by ship captains in the late 19th century. There are too many of them around to be solely ship captain sets. These were sold by stores in England, such as Ayres and Lillywhites and the middle class (which was increasing in wealth in the late 19th century) had them in their parlors (same as the larger round solitaire sets).

I have a boxload of them, and some extras from my 1990s auctions, that I picked up with a collection a few years ago, if you are interested in them. Basically, you pay shipping and I'll send them to you. Just taking up space in my garage. I also have extra copies of the printed catalogues from my 1990s auctions that I've been toying with putting up on Ebay at a buck apiece.

Maybe Bobbie (Seese)?

It's Murano. Cathy would have signed it. It's not her style anyhow :-)