milj

Happy St Patty's day to ya too! Have some corned beef for me would ya. Thanx

:-) Felicia

Happy St. Pats. I celebrated with a shot of Bushmill and finished with corn beef and cabbage. Irish Jack

How can you tell American Cats from others. I get crosseyed just looiking at them. Jack

I guess there might be some champs in the bag. Many are not. It's been backfilled.

This thread gives some insight: Hurry, Hurry, Hurry,. Al mentions the guy in Florida who was in the business of selling backfilled and totally fantasy bags in the 1990's.

I got some from someone in Florida about 5 years ago. May have been the same guy. I think one of the Champ bags I got from him might actually have had champs in it. But I still think it was backfilled. It was full of teeny amber clearies. That could make sense for Champ since the last time I saw teeny clearies they were in a bicentennial bag which I got for Christmas in 1976. But all the same color? That doesn't sound right. Sounds more like someone who bought factory surplus.

Ican't remember where are when I got these. I know I have had a BUNCH OF MARBLES bought at least twent years ago or longer. I was not really into collecting only bought them cheap. I may have bought these at Metrolina Expo in Charlotte NC. Jack

Is there any market outside of Ebay for packages of marbles like this??

Yep, those would have 2 pontils...

These were made from long glass canes... It's all hot, but one end is heated to pliable soft and placed into a rounding cup, causing it to be smooth... Then the other end is heated, twisted and cut with a sort of blade... That leaves that end a little rougher. Some of those rough ends were hand ground to faceted smooth.... I think those were older??..... Others were just left a little rough. While still soft enough to be shaped, the marble was dropped onto a rotating surface that finished the rounding process.... The next end section of the cane is heated and the process repeats to the end of the cane.

Thanks Sue. I am thakful for your expert knowledge.

Even as a newbie, I can recognize peppermint. My question is: It looks like two pontil marks. The one end looks as if the maker tried to burn off the pontil and made a mess. Any thoughts?

Sorry Felicia, nonedible.

Even as a newbie, I can recognize peppermint. My question is: It looks like two pontil marks. The one end looks as if the maker tried to burn off the pontil and made a mess. Any thoughts?

Thanks Sue for your treatise on the fake chinas. All I was trying to say, is that some of them were pretty good artwork. Another thought is with thousands upon thousands that were produced. It seems they would have had to hire hundreds of china painters with worlds of paint pens to accomplish this. One plant with a paint bucket would be lost. Thanks again

Thanks for the critique. I don't advocate buying these as the real thing. Do enlighten me as to when you think the majority of these were done.

It seems to me that everyone is wrapped up in whether we have fakes or originals. Let's accept the fact that some of these have a unique artistic value. We don't know how old the fakes are or what era they were painted in. As art objects some pf them are really fine.

Thanks Sue, I appreciate your input

These are all real pretty. I thought I would add mine to the bunch, since they are a little different.

How many different colors other than the old blue and brown are there. This picture has the usual plus speckled brown and green, some reddish tint, some have two toning. See for yourself

Has anyone ever found out who or what has the artistic talent to do such fancy and tedious painting on such a small item.

Always curious. I too have a number of great designs.