Jasper

I brightened up the top 3 marbles, but don't see any pattern. They look like they are translucent red machine mades. In that case they may be Master Marble Company Cloudies.

I've been looking for this announcement for many years. I can't tell you how happy I am that Steph is running this site, and that her contributors were able to post this item. Jasper

A question - Has anybody seen an ad for this box from 1914 or 1916. I have the ad that Steph thinks may be 1916, but I have it dated 11-1915. I once bought a full rum of the American Boy Magazines for 1914 on ebay. I went through them twice, but found no ad by Akro. An ad for this box in 1916 doesn't make a lot of sense. In that year Akro filed a patent for their small display boxes. This large counter display box was a lot harder to sell at 50 cents each than small display boxes at 5 and 10 cents each. ---JASPER

About the white onyx in Akros ad in the 1914 Playthings Magazine- I really have never heard of that production date of Sept. for MFC for white. I don't know about it one way or another. But I do know that Dec, 1914 is only a few months earlier than Sept. 1915. It's easy to imagine that MFC was just starting to look at white onyx in Dec. 1914. Another possibility is that Akro was a very good local customer. They may have requested a custom white onyx in 1914 just to have something different from MFC to offer. It would be a simple matter for MFC to swirl white into clear. They were doing that already - swirling white glass into transparent colored glass. Remember that clear glass marbles were being made by MFC for claw feet on furniture. = The Sept. ad from the Sept 1915 "Something To Do Magazine" shows a line of white onyx marbles right down the center of the box. Preparation by magazines in a given month begin long before the month in which the preparation appears. So their picture for this ad was available before September. This means that the white onyx marbles packaged in Akro's first box shown there brings the Sept. production date under suspicion, because Akro had no production facilities when they were in Akron. Their offices there were used to package MFC marbles, and to send ads and packaged marbles to buyers. ---JASPER

About "golden yellow" - This one's easy. This first Akro box did not just contain onyx marbles. It had game marbles too - jade & turquoise. The "golden yellows" are right there in Hansel's box. They are game marbles, not onyx.

Hoping to help here with the dark ad for the Keystone box - the one with the word "PLAY" below it and Detroit,Michigan above. That is definitely from American Boy Dec. 1912. I have the original magazine and just double checked it. So that's certain. ---JASPER Hoping to clarify here - The golden yellow is pretty easy to explain. All of the marbles in this first Akro box were not onyx marbles, Some were just game marbles - jade + turquoise. In Hansel's first Akro box there are 6 "golden yellow" game marbles. About the white onyx in the 1914 Playthings ad - I don't know anything about the Sept. 1915 date for MFC starting to make white onyx marbles. But I do know that December 1914 is only months before the Sept, 1915 production date. White onyx might easily been in development then. Akro was a local jobber. They might have seen the development and asked for a run, or Akro might have asked for a special run just to offer something different than MFC was offering. Akro may have been the inspiration for MFC's introduction later. What I am saying here is speculative, but quite possible. Another curious point to notice here is the the Sept. 1915 ad from Playthings Magazine features a row of white onyx right down the middle of the box! The articles and pictures for a September publication are in the works long before the publication date. I think this is evidence that the white onyx was produced before the September. It makes more believable Akro's claim. Besides, why would they offer something they couldn't supply? Another thing to remember is that MFC made onyx marbles by combining swirls of white with transparent colored glass. They also made clear marbles for furniture claw feet. It would be a piece of cake for they to add white to clear to make white onyx =- even much earlier than 1914. ----JASPER More help, I hope. The ad on the page that is dated 1916 is in my reserves as being from 11-1915. I have the same picture that Steph shows, but I can't read the date on mine. I'm not sure why I have it down as 11-1915, but I make a point of never putting down a definite date like that without knowing it for sure. Another point here - sometimes a 5 can be mistaken as a 6 if a piece of dark material connects the open circle with the straight line above. I have a question. Does anyone have an ad for this box from 1914. I once bought a full year of American Boy magazines on ebay. I searched them diligently, but found none. It may be that they were too busy with moving to put out an ad. I have also heard that there was an ad for this box in 1916, but I have never seen one. It is unlikely because Akro developed their small display boxes in 1915. They were much lower priced and therefore, a lot easier to sell.-----JASPER

Two come to mind. Akro Prize Names were specified as a few 2-color corkscrews. Later many other 2-coor corks were called Prize Names. The other notable change was in the Akro Imperial, Originally they were "Red" (Oxblood) swirls on monie base glass. Later they became Orange swirls on a translucent base (these are Aces). Still later they became the 7 most collectable oxbloods - lemonade, limeade, silver, blue, orange, carnelian, and egg yolk oxbloods. Finally, there is one Imperial Box that contains 25 3-color corks.-- Jasper Another comes into my mind. Tri-colors were originally tri-color corks in 1930. In the late 1930s or early 1940s they were renamed Uniques, and were just tri-color patched marbles.. I think Akro Royals were renamed in the 1940s ad becane Heroes. - Jasper

I measured the aspect ratio of this box on my monitor. It's 5 to 2.5 or 2 to 1. It has the same aspect ratio as the 1930 No. 150 stained glass box on P. 10 of Hardy's first book showing the Williams Hardware Store catalog picture. This No. 150 box has a stained glass cover as in AMMM. I have 2 pics of 150 boxes with covers like the one on the Akro N0. 200 box p. 31 (stained glass cover). The large Popeye box having 36 popeyes also has an aspect ratio of 2 to 1. It's about 8" by 4". But I think this is a No. 150 box with a stained glass design on the cover.

Steph, this ad is from Playthings Magazine dated 9-1938.

Sorry, my mistake. Forget what I said above. I was talking about the Master Marble Company box. This is the Master Glass Compny version. My comments about the white inside may not apply here. Clinton Israel owned Master Glass company until the early 1970s. He might easily have put these into circulation at the time specified.

I worry when I see pristine boxes like these. Especially when they are way out of their use period. (By the way, the company number for this box is 130, but 13 is on the box, and almost everyone who knows MMCO calls it their No. 13 box.) I have heard that these boxes were reproed. I've never seen one, but I was told they are easy to identify because they are white on the inside. Are these white on the inside by any chance? Another thing bothering me about these is their color. It should be orange, not red as I see here. But color on computer monitors is notorious for not being correct. Some of these original boxes had a Popsicle ad on the back. This ad was described in the June issue 1936 as MMCO having made half a mullion boxes for Popsicle Co. this year (1936). Coincidentally, the article is on page 36. This dates the originals for you.

This bag is not old. Probably made within the last 5 years. Old bags almost always had 2 staples. This one has 3. Remember all of those bogus bags from the late 1990s - they all had 3 staples.