david Chamberlain

What then is a fiberglass ingot? Jus' wondering. What threw me was the statement "not even a marble" because the green glass marble shown looked pretty much like a marble to me. I guess I've never seen fiberglass ingots but I sure have seen fiberglass marbles and to my knowledge the only person to have made them was Jeffrey Grey. David

So, how 'bout the lid? Would you make that like maybe 1/16" or 1/32" larger? David

On stand by with abated breath! David

The original question in this thread really kind of self-destructs because any attempt to make at will the marble(s) desired would ipso facto deny the possibility of it happening and the joy of chancing upon these special oddities would be taken right out of the process. David

I can't help myself Delbert; my mind goes off on these strange tangents when it comes to marbles....David

Not fiberglass. The only person to have made Fiberglass marbles and he(Jeffrey Grey) calls them Fiber Agates had a fiberglass business and also collected marbles. See Barrett's book for pictures. Jeffrey is also a good friend. Also not Fiber Optic. This marble is about as purely glass as any marble could be from my sights. And that is a normal glass crease that you see very often. David

It is in the nature of marbles to almost always be able to find something that looks a lot like......it's what makes it so damnably frustrating. Now for me that one in the second picture doesn't compare at all....it is also exceedingly subjective. David

Serious marble lineage. David

These thee guys said it all w/o going into convoluted descriptions. Trouble with these creases, wrinkles, whatever.....no matter where they are you can turn the marble to make it appear as if they're at where a pontil should be. Damn confusin' David

I am not cross-wired for this but it's a cool thread nonetheless. Prefer going by the heft of the marble in my hand. David

Sometimes pure unadulterated plain-spokenness fits the bill perfectly. David

Gee, I voted again today after voting yesterday and it told me I'd already voted today. What's up with that? David

I think having your jammies made into a marble bag is seriously cool! That kid had class! David

Whoa! I didn't even notice in the initial picture posted that they were Popeye and Olive Oyl illustrations on the bag. This is a major steal at the Buy Now price of $20. Gawd! Go for it.....anyone. this would be cause enough to start collecting Popeye marbles. Killer bag! David P.S. Can I commission anyone to get it for me.....help! I' m good for it!

Those just pictured are to die for. Sue, I was figuring on the Bev Brule connection for Bennington reference. It has been time honored understanding that the name Bennington though did not derive from the Bennington VT plant as it pertained to the Bennington marbles we almost all have at least common examples of. David

Blue glass or just blue vanes. Larry and Cathy Vascina showed up at Amana one year with a bunck of blue glass cage-style cat's-eyes although I seem to recall them as being more of a cobalt blue. If this is blue glass it is much lighter. David P.S. Oops! Just noticed that you say 3/4". Theirs were all 5/8". This is a much more uncommon size.

The particularly irritating thing about this is that this Seller is giving a perfectly legitimate marble made by Champion Agate Co. a negative reputation that it does not deserve, because the seller may very well be found out eventually by the buyer and you can be assured that the buyer's distaste for the transaction will be broadcast. I suspect that already a few reading this will be thinking less of the Champion Agate marble. It pisses me off especially as others have stated here that this is probably deliberate fraud. I blame eBay as well for not allowing other people to contact prospective buyers; they are complicit. I've half a mind to jump into eBay myself just for the satisfaction of scoring Sellers in situations like this but there's no reason that anyone of you can't do what you can. I'm making enough trouble elsewhere as is abundantly well known. David

'Pink' pretty much trumps all other bennington, lined crockery, china characteristics.....David

Don't you love it when you see guys like that getting all goofy over a little marble! David

I'd weigh the green one along with a glass marble of the same size to eliminate that possibility o/w you're left with 'destructive analysis.' I had a dynamite 1 3/4" Blue Bennington that was for real with no eyes and perfectly smooth surface. It had shadings of blue from navy blue to cobalt blue. Then I also had a Robert Brown Blue Bennington and a Robt. Brown Fancy Bennington that blew me away. Ran into him at a flea mkt. west of Charleston in the early 1990s and told him about the two marbles and got his Scout's Honor to somehow sign his marbles in the future in whatever way he could manage. Nice guy. They called him Brownie and he was as brown as a berry. David P.S. All of yours look legit; Scoop would know forsure.

Not really a heck-of-a-lot to add. Thankfully Charlie Stutsman(general A&C Dealer) was selling these in sets of 28 different and also in qtys. of each variety. He provided names for most of them as a selling vehicle. I provide a small history on how thee marbles happened to come into existence via Cathy & Champion plus a separate listing of the different marbles with names(in most cases) and the same descriptions that Charlie provided for identification. As I recall there's a picture of the set in the Champion article at joemarbles.com although I believe it has a little better definition at Marble Mental but it would be hidden way back in her pages these days. When I found out that Dave McCullough didn't have a set of these himself(Steve S. clued me in) I sent him one. Least I could do after all the perks he'd sent my way. I really think that after a little acquaintance with these marbles you would be able to readily recognize them in the wild. Then I've known them intimately for about 20 years! David

O.K. I probably should have added to my post that the term 'hybrid' from the get-go has been a bit of a misnomer. There are so bloody many of these marbles that it is kinda hard to apply the term to them. It's just that during the mid-to-late 1990s and especially after Larry & Marlow's book on cat's-eye marbles the name Hybrids became enshrined with the Vitro Hybrid Identification. See pg. 13 and 14(the cage-style) and then their text as well. Page 13 under the heading HYBRID CAT'S-EYES shows mainly five vaners with 2 and 3 colors. Of course I have them with more colors but mostly 3 colors and only 2 colors when I felt they were particularly outstanding. Again, it was a constant secondary comment when these marbles came up for discussion that the term 'hybrid' was taken loosely which is what I probably should have pointed out from the get-go in my Post above. Maybe in general use the name generically but more specifically it has come to be associated as Larry & Marlow designation. Oh, and while 5 vanes was the predominate variety they did occur in four and six vanes and then, of course in the cage-style as noted in their book on page 14. I hope that this has fleshed it out more succintly (sp); it's not always my intention to go into considerable elaboration when I'm basically just making a one shot comment as I did above(whatever the heck it was I said!). David

Well, I'm not familiar with all that not being an eBay regular but the marble on its own is a tasty Dave McCullough 1980s creation done as part of a larger pkg. of marbles partially commissioned by Cathy Runyan-Svacina as she rightly so felt it was about time that there were some neat marbles out there for kids. I've sold sets of something like 28 different marbles from that run which I purchased around 1991 from Charlie Stutsman so I'm somewhat familiar with them. David

There's always a plus side when that river bed gets stirred up.....diggers paradise! David

Thought I'd toss in another confirmation. On one of my visits to Lakewood CO and Patry Denton she even ID'd some marbles just like the ones in the bag here and Duffy's as having a Canadian connection although via Gladding-Vitro or Vitro-Gladding. David