ann

I agree with the "up close, in focus shots." Not saying it`s not a nice mib, just not a Sparkler, I don`t think. I have a bunch of them. Not enough, of course.

I agree.

Not CAC.

Me either! And yes, as far as I know, green is an unusual color for these.

Check it out!

Forgot to add it`s a compass and rule - but turn it the other way: the points of the compass and rule should be on the bottom -

This is definitely the Freemason`s emblem. Just ordered a book on their symbols, etc., but I know enough already to positively ID this. Wow. If these few marbles indicate the depth and variety of this collection . . . I hardly know what to say, except that your grandfather was a great collector!

I know why you got excited, akroorka! The one on the right is certainly a white slag - most that I have and have seen are pretty sparse on the white, like this one. The crucial question now is : is there an observable pontil, and if so what does it look like? is it rough, or has it been ground down? If it`s been ground, you should be able to see faint facets there.

Nice - I have a few of those hand-gathered solid-colored ones . . . I like them. A light blue one I have fluoresces like crazy. Yours?

I`m curious about the old cardboard box - have you opened it yet?

What a great and varied haul! I'm envious! Even original packaging! Congratulations, and boy are you going to have a good time with this.

Also my German machine-made slags, which I traded for with a German onionskin collector (sent him two nice peewee onionskins with mica, and he sent me ALL of his German machine-mades. I was thrilled. Must have been thirty or so, including some red slag ones. Love that guy.)

It Is Czech, and I have as many big ones as I do small, I think, but my big ones have transparent bases - got them from Alan B. back in the day. When I figure out how to work my new camera and introduce it to my new laptop (which I`m still not proficient on) I`ll post them.

Nice!

These are great! Somewhere around is a video by Mark Matthews making a contemporary cane-cut marble you might want to look for and post - I would but there are things I don`t know how to do yet on this new @#%&# oversensitive laptop.

Torch and cane-cut - like the old German swirls.

Yep.

There was a true black but often marble makers used very dark brown, green, or purple in place of black, because if dark enough they presented as black. Black apparently was harder, or more expensive, or trickier to make. So I understand from Henry Hellmers` batch book of glass formulae - but he does give several formulae for black. He developed glass formulae for Akro, mostly, but also some for Peltier and Alley.

1,529,947 = the Ira Freese patent "for making variegated glass." 462,083 for the Miller machine. 1,942,035 = another Miller patent for "process and apparatus for feeding glass." 802,495 = Martin F Christensen "for making spherical bodies or balls." 1,488,817 = H. M. Jenkins "machine for forming spherical bodies" 1922 1,596,879 = the same as above, but 1924 Whee!

Not only rocked the boat - sometimes he overturned it! Still, sad news.

Agree about the small flashlight - i always took a small UV flashlight as well. And although I have gotten some deals at the show, the best were from the in-room trading. You don`t have to have a room at the hotel to participate. Just ask where the marble-people`s rooms are if there isn`t a sign. Hope you go - you`ll love it!

I like reading patents too. Long ago I participated in a discussion here where some of us (including John McCormick) agreed that in fact the 1927650 patent was the patent for the device in the nozzle of the tank that produced the feathered slags - the key word being striated or striations. I have some marble patent numbers if you`re interested . . .

When I started to collect, I had the same problem. Worse, because I liked all kinds: old German swirls (what I started with), micas, chinas and clays, handgathered, vintage machine mades, Jabo special runs, handmade contemporary. Awful. I finally settled on two restrictions (I had to impose some.) One was the same as chicagocyclist - just the pretty ones that I loved - the other was size. I decided I wouldn`t buy anything that couldn`t be used in play - marbles, no orbs, globes, those huge German oldies, huge contemporaries, etc. Nothing bigger than 1 1/16" The contemporaries were particularly hard; so many artists rarely worked that small. Took me four years to get 4 James Alloway marbles. But I had to stop somewhere!