orbboy

Found a neat little early partial Solitaire set mixed in with 400+ Catseyes. Here are the Onions. Guess I can live with the Catseyes. Check those Jars carefully. Harder to find smaller 11/16"ish

Now that's a score. Wow! If you like Handmades let me know when your ready to do some trading lol. I likes me Corks. All is fodder to get some pretty Corks. Not too sure on your Blood Alleys. Would need to see them inhand to be sure. They look a little transparent to me.

Handmades can generally be dated by two factors. First is the colour pallet used. It can take a little study but once you have it in your head you can see it. Second is the type of pontil of witch there are 3 types. Early handmades were for lack of a better word "finished" meaning they spent the time and effort to remove as much of the pontil as they could. This was called faceting, and if you look at a good early handmade the pontil may not even be visible without magnification. Also there will be only a single pontil, the top would have been rounded prior to snipping off the cane. These were done from approx 1860-1890 as best we know. I refer to this type as "early period" Handmades. The next type of pontil are like the two bigger ones in your pic. They would have been snipped and half ass cleaned up. Most commonly by melting the pontil down. I can only see the pontil on one of yours but colours are of the same pallet so I assume the pontils should match. This was done from 1890-1920 as best we know. These I call "mid period" marbles. The last type of pontils are like your smaller one. Totally half assed, rush them out the door unfinished. Sometimes they will have the single cruddy pontil. Quite often they will have two. These I call "late period" marbles made from the 1920's until they stopped making handmades ??? There is a great difference in the colours of the later marbles compared to the early ones. Generally the colours are brighter and more vibrant than the early ones making them quite sought after despite being made much later. Nice early period marbles still seem to get the most £££'s or for you North Americans $$$'s on average.

Pretty cool exhibit. Sort of on topic with these. Purchased from the estate of the guy who emptied the Medmenham RAF base in the 70's. They were in the Officers Club for 30+ years.

Row 2 marble one is a German Handmade. The bright colours put it in the "English colour" pallet. Looks to be a Divided Core construction. Nice marble from the 1920-1930's

My addiction to neat round things made me buy them. But what are they? Base is made from Clay with individual strips of paper glued on. What a tedious job that would be. Large ones measure 1 1/8" the little ones measure a tad over 5/8". Based on the nylon string bag I would have to put them in the late 60's early 70 time frame. I would not think the little ones came in the bag as they fall right through the holes. Any thoughts?

Imperial for sure. Not to uncommon to have voids in them. Check out these ones I think might be Imperials. Whatever they are they are very early based on groups I have found them in. The ones you see were found a couple here and a couple there and all I have. They could also have been made by whoever made Wisplers as they share a few traits with them as well. Prettier inhand. Did a close up so you could see construction and textures. Any ideas?

Here's some more. If your blue and white one 3rd row up and just right of center has any hint of transparent clear glass in it it might belong in your Wispler section. They can fool ya.

Is that transparent blue or the inky painted on type blue sitting on a layer of clearer glass? Looks to have nice depth to it.

Have never found a Melon Ball. Cool find. Busy week this week with 4 shows on. Not a bad haul. Here are the mint ones. Except for the pink Solid Core that has a little pop and flake on the backside. Too neat to leave out.

Nice one!

I would go German. They don't all have 2 perfect seams. Some even have just one seam.

Al got it. Dyed clays they are.

Nope. Nope. And I wish but nope.

Any Guesses.

Here are a few more examples of Naked Handmades. 2 on the left are Solid Cores, top right is a Divided Core (sort of). Bottom right is a totally different type that just happens to look naked. It's actually an Onionskin that is shrunken. Since Onions were never ment to have outer bands of colour, they can't really be naked. Sometime they did not fill the whole marble and are refered to as shrunken. Pretty easy to see the differance between it and the Naked Solid Cores dispite the similer looking construction.

Take away the outer bands and a common Latt really pops. Anyone have anything else naked out there.

This might help explain why there are so many Vitro here. No internal white so Conquerors from the 40's right?

The best part of the old boys is that there are 4 to 5 sets of extra eyes on the field looking for marbles for me. I have taught them quite a bit so if they see a deal they will grab it up for me and charge me no more than £20 on top of what they paid. Even if they know they know they are worth much much more. Or if they see some that they do not know about they will point me in the direction of where they are so I can take a peek. Plus I get to see and learn about some pretty awesome historical antiquities sitting on a 4'x4' coffee stained plastic fold-up table beside a coffee truck. Antiques Roadshow can suck it! The rest of the bag was about 90 or so deteriorating clay marble. Hence the dirty part, and what is in the pic below. I might try and have the Onion saved since it is a nice one. Bummer about the 4 blue Single Pontils. Thankfully the Ox and purple one is not as rough. I do like the chunky Mica the best since I have never owned one with such a chunk in it before.

The Euro? Type ones are actually pretty common over here. I have stopped buying them unless they are extra nice since I can't close the draw they go in any more. The two with red in them are the only 2 I have with red.

There is 17 years of marble hunting finds in this house. There are a grand total of 0 Master Glass here. Odd huh? I only have 3 Marble King as well. So you get a pic of Master Glasses unknown makers cousins. Wisplers or Whisplers as the late Roger Browse dubbed them years ago. Best I can do.

Yeah they are very bubbled and melted looking. Wish I had one in crappy condition. I would put put a flame to it.

Lol. I did a search for them as well and didn't come up with too much. My I.D comes from the "Old Boys Club" as I have dubbed them. A group of old guys my dad plunks down with to have a coffee with after each pick. Instant and unanimous I.D on it. I was even corrected on the hand painted aspect since I thought it was a transfer. Who am I to argue with 150+ years of combined antique knowledge? These old dudes know their stuff. A few I salvaged out of a dirty old bag yesterday.

Gutta Percha were made from tree sap around 1860-1870ish time. Maybe a little later. I guess that based on marbles I find them with. I don't think anyone knows for sure.

These three are wounded. Touch mark? Rot? Finger spots? Who has any theories.