ann

Well, surprise on me. Rummaging around in my cat's-eye box for the black ones I came across one that looks like the one in your photo, Steph -- very clear glass, color really a very deep purple when back-lighted. But then when I looked at the poles, I discovered it was really three-vaned, so not a banana at all. The vane glass is so dark you can't distinguish the vanes at all unless you look at the poles. So another mystery black cat.

I might put it with my Alleys, too, because of that "flower-like" pattern in the middle view. I have several Alleys that have that. On the other hand . . . the super white base and nice red ribbons wider than on many of Alley flames could be CAC. Lots of help, Ain't I?

YES!

The only black bananas I have are in very bubbly glass, so I've been keeping them with my Bogards. I haven't seen one with the bubble-free glass typical of Pelt bananas. I have some of the brown ones too, and one odd gray-blue, all in the bubbly glass. And the bananas themselves are not solid opaque like most Pelts. I'm not entirely comfortable calling them translucent. Maybe semi-translucent? Combined with the bubbly base glass, it makes them look a little . . . fuzzy, or something. I seem to remember that something about them was mentioned in the Castle & Peterson cat's-eye book. I'll check tonight. I have no clue about the black banana in your post, Steph! The base glass looks too clear to be like the ones I have. Oh. And if there IS such a thing as a Pelt black banana, I WANT ONE.

Annoying, ain't it?

Welcome -- I like your avatar! (born & raised in eastern North Carolina)

Yup, every now and then . . .

.

And . . .

Mmmm . . . well, I have a couple that are kind of a stretch, but both have orange and black in them . . . more or less . . .

OMG. I didn't even know there were Pelts that big . . .

Me too.

Sweet Pea = bright green base, yellow with some dark pink or coral .. . Black-eyed Pea = bright green base, yellow with some black . . . (no blue) Wait. I don't know about JABO's version. Nevermind.

"You're not that bright, are you? I like that in a man." Kathleen Turner to William Hurd in Body Heat.

I just realized this other recent score has a weird affinity with the Alley up there . . . What does it MEAN?? EEEEE!

EEEkk. The red ones were 13/16. I think the yellow ones were the same, but I'll have to check tonight - - -

Art discovered that the Wisconsin toy company existed in the 1930s and 1940s and then vanished from the record, but the marbles remained a mystery. So he sent some of the yellow ones to Gino Biffany in Ottowa. Gino, a Pelt expert as some of you know, said they were experimentals and not produced in any quantity because they fractured too easily; Art felt that explained the fact that there were several dozen half marbles -- all yellow ones -- at the bottom of the box. All fractured cleanly in half. Gino told Art he called them "Smilies" because of the shape of the clear strip on each. Art then took a few hundred marbles from the box, including all of the yellow ones, and sold the box and remaining marbles to "a fellow out west." Since Art himself was particularly fond of marbles in packaging (he once had over 130 original boxes) and had learned how to repair them, he fabricated four for his "Smilies" (including the bags) and sold three of them -- all labeled as shown in the first picture -- at a Decatur show. He kept the unlabeled one for himself, until he sent it to me as an unexpected gift the year before he died . . . Miss you, Art.

I'll tell it to you pretty much as Art Jones told it to me. Mostly I'm quoting from a letter he sent me in 2010 with the aforementioned fourth box. A young man that he knew, who had done some flea-marketing and who also knew that Art collected marbles, stopped by one day with a cardboard box partially filled with marbles. The box was damaged and had no top, but it was the original shipping box from Peltier Glass Company and was addressed to Marlin Toy Products in Horican, Wis. It had originally held 5,000 marbles, and Art estimated that there were about 1300 left in the box. There were only two types -- transparent orange-red and opaque yellow with a weird clear strip.

There are only three Boxes of "Smilies" like this in the whole wide world -- and a fourth one that has no label on the box. All originated with the late Art Jones, a collector who sometimes appeared here on MC.

OK. I'll make a thread . . .

You would probably enjoy Gore Vidal's definition of a paranoid = someone in possession of all of the facts. One of my all-time favorites.

Just wear tin foil on your head. That's what I do.

I bought myself a gift.

That's one of the three (fantasy) Pelt Smileys boxes that Art Jones made and sold a few years ago. He made a fourth one without the artwork on the box, which he kept for himself. But then he decided (wonderful man) to send it to me. I know where mine is, and I know where two of the three others are. But I don't know where the other one is, or if the person who has it knows what it is . . . If anyone wants the full story on where Art got the marbles, etc., say so and I can tell you . . . (but right now I have to go back to work . . .)

Oh dear. Ron, I just might have to come and get that one . . .