BobBlock

The ones Mike pictures are late 1980s to early 1990s. I have a couple dozen of these type packed away somewhere. There were also about a dozen in the Rocco collection when I bought it a couple of years ago. Those dozen had to have been acquired prior to 1992. I'm thinking they are House of Glass from out in Indiana. They are not Gibson and they are not early Jim Davis.

Jim Davis did not sign his marbles early on. You had to ask him to. I remember having the table next to him at one of the Northeast shows in the mid 1990s and watching him sign marbles as folks bought them from him.

I think they sell for more than that Steph. I'd expect to see it go on Ebay in th $60-$100 range.

There have been Heffalump sitings from time to time as well.

I picked up each of those in Amana years ago. I think I have a couple of others packed away. I seem to remember I have a small one that is painted to look like mochaware.

Here's two shots of two of the Robert Brown marbles I have in my display case. Poor quality image, but I used the phone camera.

My Dad and I started the Block's Box Absentee Auctions in 1989 because of our experience at a live auction in New Jersey. My dad had received a call from the auctioneer in the week prior to the auction telling him that there were about 100 lots of marbles in his auction Saturday and maybe we'd like to come down. So, we did. One of those interesting on-site at the house auctions with everything under tents. There was a very nice assortment of handmades and machine mades in the auction. Out of the 100 lots, we bought 5. One gentleman bought almost all of them. That gentleman was Jack Whistance (for those of you who remember Jack). But he wasn't the only one. Many of the lots sold for 3x what we were willing to pay. So, on the way back in the car we were talking about it. My dad had been collecting antique paperweights long before he collected marbles and participated in a mail catalogue absentee paperweight auction out of Rhode Island. We had been producing a typewritten list of marbles for sale for a few years at this point, so we had a mailing list. We tossed it around and decided that if people were crazy enough to pay these kind of prices for marbles (back in 1989) then we could do a mail catalogue absentee marble auction. And that's how it started. The first auction catalogued was printed in black and white!

The technique dates back at least 200 years. I collect chinese snuff bottles and I have several that are inside painted using this technique (though they are only about 1860, not 1700s). The artist uses a brush with only one or two bristles on it, so that they can do the detail work.

Interesting to see that 10 years later it is still accompanied by it's auction label.

Sorry, I don't recognize the signature. Nicely made marble though. Very pretty.

Contemporary, unfortunately (though I guess that depends on your perspective). Even worse it was used for target practice and has several dings on one side.

It looks like auction #1021 was sometime in 2004. The record in the database is 1021,36,"CONTEMPORARY HANDMADE","Hollow glass sphere inside-painted with a bull in a field. Hole in the bottom. Probably used as a finial. Chinese. 1-1/2"". Mint (9.9).",6.00 Is this the item you're looking for? Sold for $6.00

Scott, that would be can-can top if it's French :-)

It's a French parasol handle finial. They were the caps on the bottom of umbrellas. It might also be from a French walking stick, one of the thin ones. What is the diameter of the hole?

The red and white is Gibson. The blue with the signature is probably Sam Hogue. The others appear to all be the same maker, based on the pontil on each. I think they might be House of Glass.

Marble CyberAuction #1107 will be held next Sunday evening, March 24 beginning at 8PM NYC time. This is an auction of 165 lots of handmade, machine made and contemporary marbles from two different consignors. Virtually everything in the auction is Mint or unusual. The handmades in this auction are from a European collection. There are a number of unusual swirls and onionskins in this auction. Most of the marbles are Mint. The machine mades are from a collection we've been working through for a few auctions now. Mostly Mint Popeyes, but there are other machine mades in here as well. I have prepared a complete catalogue of the 165 lots in the auction. The catalogue listings identify each marble by type, give a short description of the marble, list any defects in the marble, list the size and condition and an estimate of value. One or more images of each lot are available as well. You can view the catalogue in one of two places: A PDF version of the catalogue listings with one image for each lot can be viewed or downloaded at http://www.blocksite.com/marble-auctions/block-s-marble-cyberauctions/ You can also view the catalogue listings, with 3 to 5 large images of most lots, on the iCollector site at http://www.icollector.com/auction.aspx?as=26539 Here's a couple that are in the auction:

Looks that way to me.

when I saw these on Ebay I at first thought they were for holding olives in a martini

I'm going to try to stop by in the afternoon. My oldest has a soccer tournament in Lancaster about 15 minutes away from 10 til 6, and I have to go to a bat mitzvah in Wayland after dropping him off. So, I'll try and stop by on my way back to get him.

No, that one I don't recognize. Can you post a picture of the marble and signature? Or send it to me in email and I'll take a look.

This seller emailed me about this marble because he had received several offers on it while it was up for auction and he wanted to know what I thought it was worth. Because of the size he had listed, I got him to remeasure it, and lo and behold the marble was in fact 2-1/8" diameter, not 3-1/8". So, I gave him my thoughts on the value at that size. I think he posted an addendum to the auction, but he never changed the title. I suspect that whoever paid $1500 for it probably sent it back when they received it or he adjusted the price. He got about 6x what I told him I thought it was worth in its condition.

List of upcoming marble shows at http://www.marblecollecting.com/marble-community/marble-show-calendar/

It's David Rosenfeldt of Shipwreck Glass

I thought it was way overpriced, considering what the surface looks like. 3/4" are hard to find, but that's a lot of money.

The Gerry Colman ones usually have a small "c" scratched somewhere on the surface, usually at one end.