BobBlock

Interesting. 2,638 Prima nests x 4 boxes per nest x 25 marbles per box = 263,800 marbles. And only 18,000 Prima Agates of all sizes in inventory. So, it would appear they had a large bulk order of boxes printed up and constructed, but only filled them in anticipation of orders. It could be that when the agreement was severed with Peltier in 1931, there were still a number of empty boxes in inventory.

I would be leery of any 4+1 set that had marbles in it. I cannot recall ever seeing any, way back when, that were filled. OTOH, I saw several single boxes filled with honey onyxes back then, and I'd bet they were original. The marbles were worth a lot more sold individually than the sets were selling for. FWIW.

There were a lot of empties floating around about 20 years ago. You used to be able to pick up 4 square ones nested in a larger rectangular box for something like 15 or 20 bucks. I remember Carmelo having a bunch of these. I've always been a little leery of any of them that do not contain honey onyxes or white-base red-ribbon Rainbos.

There was a ballot box as an uncatalogued lot in last weeks Mass auction. No one was bidding on it until I pointed out to Elliot that it was filled with white benningtons. He picked it up for 5 bucks I think (maybe10).

Hey, did you take that #7 sulphide pic from one of my auctions? :-) Looks like my old fabric background and numbering system. LOL

I remembering seeing similar chunks over thirty years ago. I doubt anyone was faking them back then, the individual marbles were worth more than the chunk.

The auctioneer did 425 lots in 2 hours and 20 minutes. There was an uncatalogued group of 4 Akro mesh bags. It started pouring outside about 10 lots before that one. I ran outside to shut my windows, and by the time I got back in, he had gone 4 lots past it. The four bag old for 10 bucks. I was pretty annoyed because I had wanted o bid on them. There was a slew of uncatalogued mar be bag, pouches and lots. For instance, I got a lot of about 225 corkscrews, including about 50 three-colors, for $15.

Bert should have called them cordless. Naked swirls have no outer layer. I think we can probably cut Bert a little bit of slack here, he's going to be 80 this year. Back in the 1970s, 80s and 90s, he was one of the most vocal cheerleaders for marble collecting and marble playing.

Thought I'd give a quick update on the marble auction in Massachusetts on Wednesday. The auction had been mentioned in an earlier post. The catalogues are at Marble Catalogue Game catalogue I got to the viewing at 3pm sharp. The only two people there were me and Carl Popp. By the time the auction started at 6, there were 15 peop,e there. The only other marble collector there, that I recognized, was Elliot Pincus. There was no printed auction listing. The first Mint marble was Lot 44. Of the first 90 marbles, only 2 were Mint (except Contemporaries). The large onions and swirls, the first 135 lots, generally went for $30-$50, with only a couple of rare exceptions. The Simpson planets went for $100-$150 each. The Matthews peppermint for $170. Once you got to the groups, I was picking up handmade swirls at $1.50-$2.00 each, micas at about a buck each, oxbloods at about a buck each, Popeyes at about $4 each. There were 140 uncatalogued marble groups. The games in the second section generally went for $1-$5 each, the tin games for about $15-$20 each. I picked up all three Akro child sets. All in all, it was a good buying auction. Mint large marbles were few and far between. Almost all the small marbles were Mint. I was able to pick up Lot 92, which turned out to be a Mint Double Ribbon Swirl, first off cane flower type 1-3/8" for $40 bucks. The only marble I was able to add to my collection, due to the poor condition of the large marbles. It was great fun hanging out with Carl and Elliot. It reminded me of the time in 1993 that Harold Sugarman ran a two day marble auction in St. Louis, but because of the floods, there were only 11 of us bidding there the first day and 7 on the 2nd. Elliot was at that one too.. I think between the two of us, we bought almost to thirds of the lots in the auction. I had to run to Walmart after the first session to buy a second suitcase to haul everything home.

I've seen the style before. Not unique, but it is reallly rare.

I picked up a large collection late last week. It had a number of rarities in it, but it also had the marble below that I have never seen before. Venini marble side view Venini marble bottom view It is signed "Venini" on the top. Venini is one of the large glass houses in Murano. Looking through my Murano books, it looks like this pattern was used in glass in the 1960s. Interestingly, Lino Tagliapietra was a Master Glassblower at Venini in the mid 1960s, so it could very well be that this marble was made by him. It is 3-1/8" diameter. The collection it came from was put together by a gentleman that passed away prematurely 20 years ago. The collection was packed away at that time and put in the basement. I suspect that he bought it at a gallery in New York City in the 1970s, as he had a shop there. The price tag still on it is $400, which would have been an astronomical amount back then. The Italian sulphides and numerals are not signed. I have never seen a signed Murano marble, has anyone else?

The 10,000 hour rule is the basis for Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliers, which was a best seller about 3 years ago. It's a quick read and well worth the couple of hours if you have an interest in this type of thing. Not quite as good as Blink ot Tipping Point, IMHO, a couple of his other books. Gladwell is actually interviewed in the HBO movie, Bobby Fischer Against The World, which premiered on HBO this past Monday, and he applies the theory to Bobby Fischer (and Grand Master chess players in general). I thought it was a good documentary, and I think is still running on HBO in repeat, or On Demand.

I thought it was a Hogue when looked at it online.

I'm not sure how much use the catalogue is if you want to absentee bid, as each lot only has a picture and a size. No grading of condition. Good pics though. Douglas holds one or two large paperweight auctions a year and I've bought a number of weights from them over the years. Through past experience I now only buy if I can actually get up there and look at the weights. Good and very competent auctioneers.

Here's a box of them I bought at(believe it or not) Morphy's group antique shop about 20 years ago. I think I paid about $35 for it and almost had a panic attack at the time to be spending that much money on a box of Vitros.

I'm not sure if Ebay is sending out the 1099s. I know Paypal is because you had to fill something out online about two weeks ago about it. Paypal will send out 1099s for those accounts that have $20,000 AND 200 transactions. I don't see that it is an issue for casual sellers. And larger sellers should be reporting something on Capital Gains or Schedule C already, or eventually the IRS will catch up with you through your banking activity. My bigger issue with Ebay is that they are now charging their Final Value Fee on shipping charges. And they actually had the balls to spin this as a fee reduction!!! Back in the good old days, it was costing you about 5 or 6% to sell on Ebay. Between the Paypal fees and all the little Ebay listing fees, its in the neighborhood of 15-20%, unless you start everything at 99cents and offer free shipping, and then you're still paying a good 10%. I get it that Ebay is trying to turn themselves into another Amazon shopping experience, but you're paying more to Ebay now than you would pay to an auctioneer, and you have to do all the work.

I can dream can't I? LOL! It was advertised about 2 weeks ago in the Antiques and Arts Weekly and Maine Antique Digest, so I figured I'd see a bunch of New England collectors. But, the auctioneer sent out postcards to everyone and his uncle this week, so I guess there will be a big crowd. Oh well, so much for some bargains!

Shhhhhhhhhhhh! I was hoping no one else would go :-)

I'm not convinced that these were accidental. I think that Peltier made the conscious decision to try and replicate the corkscrew pattern. But, I have no solid evidence to support the hypothesis.

Oh yes, broken corkscrew not corkscrew. I must be getting old, I think I'm forgetting more than I ever knew

I have the following item on EBay: My link and have it identified as a Peltier National Line Rainbo Corkscrew. It has four ribbons, the first starting at the top pole then linking with the second and spiraling from top to bottom pole with the four linked end to end in a spiral. I've always called these Peltier corkscrews, but an EBay user has taken me to task, saying that only Akro made corkscrews. What's your opinion?

Here's today's purchases, bought from two different dealers. I spent less than $100 on the group. The Clambroth is 7/8"!

I heard that traffic was light this year. I had considered going, but with two Little League games and two soccer games to sit through since Friday, I bagged it (the kids are only young once). Any show reports?

I know someone mentioned this in another topic, but with Spring/Summer finally here in full force in the Northeast, I've begun to notice it at the local flea markets. Over the past 10 or 15 years I've rarely bought marbles at them. Usually you're lucky to you find one person with marbles, and they are usually jars of junk or very overpriced handmades. But, over the past few weeks I've seen many more people with marbles at the flea markets and it is higher quality stuff at reasonable prices. I have probably bought more marbles at flea markets in the past 4 weeks than I've bought in the last 10 years. Has anyone else noticed this? To what do you attribute it? Economy? Aging population?

They sent out email invoices the day after the auction. I actually got my box of winnings yesterday. I am a little surprised the results aren't posted yet. Brian is in Amana this week, I saw him in Brimfield a couple of weeks ago. BB