ann

David Bowie.

Yep. Boo.

Hmmmm. No, doesn't look as much like oxblood as I expected. Still a very nice Alley. I like the ones with narrow bi- or multi-colored ribbons like this . . .

Hogtie it.

Uncommon cork. Could almost pass as oxblood . . .

Just me drawing a >>blank<< on these orange ones, Winnie. No clue at all what they are.

Didn't even think of it possibly being a Pelt broken cork. >> slaps self on head << Would make sense in that group . . .

Voting Alley with Steph. OK, I'll single out the one with the green and brown ribbons . . . Take a good luck with a bright light and you may find that those brown ribbons are oxblood. Larger sizes are unusual in those, in my experience. I also particularly like what I think of as a "reverse Alley" -- the one with white swirls in a dark green base glass. All good to have!

Yep. Both Alley "West Virginians." Nice!

Yep.

Call me crazy, but I just can't attach the name "sunset" to anything but the red / orange / yellow ones . . . And I think bubbly is required, but I may be wrong.

Woman can be corney. But sounds to me like you're just someone interested in history. Me too. Others here as well. No worries!

Here's a handful of Dave's I really like --

The one on the left looks like it might be an Akro cork. The other three look like Peltier "zebras." The bit of metallic fleck is aventurine. Look at all three of them under a very bright light and see which ones you get a glitter from. You may be pleasantly surprised! Sometimes the aventurine appears as a silver or gold glitter, but some zebras have other colors too -- here's one of mine, a "bronze" aventurine zebra with a few flecks of green AV too.

Peltier multi-colored swirl.

>>> [blank] <<<

What she moaned ^^^^^^

Might also be possible because under the right conditions at least one blue colorant I know of (cupric oxide) can also produce oxblood. But be that as it may . . . I've wondered a lot about these too. Seems like such a natural combination of colors, somehow. Perhaps there were a few happy accidents. Looks like there were at least two, with yours and the piece Brian found! I have long had a pale blue marble that looks like a lightly striped striped opaque, with the striping looking suspiciously like oxblood. I keep it with my tiny collection of CACs. In my more rational moments I think "Surely [don't call me Shirley] that's a mahogany brown, or something, and not oxblood . . ." or even "Well it's not exactly right, but I suppose it could be one of those Euro types . . ." I don't know why I've never compared the blue with the blue of my one cherished Persian turquoise, bought from Alan back in the day. Probably because I keep them in separate boxes, at least 6 feet from each other. Oh well. Marble homework, oh shucks. Can't wait to see what might turn up here. Would love to see more . . .

Winnie's marbles just kill me every time.

Wow, I wondered if that's where "liggies" came from! Stumbled across lignum vitae back in the early 1970s when I lived for a brief but memorable time in the Keys . . . at an outdoor table eating a burger next to a fascinating bush that had small orange flowers and blue berries at the same time. Found out it was lignum vitae, a wood so dense and hard it was used for bowling balls and some rudder mechanisms for large ships. Has been a favorite of mine ever since. So somebody must have had a few marbles of lignum vitae at some time or other?

As in ground and polished round?

I suppose we could declare them to be pink . . .

Wow. I used to have to practice that piece as a finger exercise on the piano when I was a kid. Serious flashback!

Whole-heartedly.