david Chamberlain

Thank goodness my mother waited 'till 1912 to be born! .....David Chamberlain

The Father of Contemporary Marbles, Ro Purser, operates entirely with a belt driven set-up. It is an Old World joy to behold. ...David Chamberlain

Me too. The Catmeister...... .....David

Please provide me with the coordinates. I've got my Pick & Shovel in hand! ....David Chamberlain

It's so much fun weighing in on these marbles when they're obviously of consequence. Thanks for posting these two. You could practically call that 1st one a hybrid handmade! Of course the red latticinio puts it over-the-top value wise. Thecollapsed or depleted solid core appears to be lobed which is also nice. My strength is not handmades but isn't that bold outer red latticinio unusual? Gotta be! Red latticinios alone according to Block have a 15x to 30x increased valuation and this one is totally unmoored! Would like to know size and condition. That embryonic cloud is deep space; I can practically envision some Alien picketing some interstellar clinic with that image on a poster board! Once size and condition are determined you're still going to have to shoot from the hip on price! ...David Chamberlain

It's too bad that my photo of the eight doesn't exhibit the Pink Champagne in all its glorious pinkness(front left one) but I just wasn't capturing the light right that day. The Pink Champagnes are a delight, a light transparent pink with crystal clarity. I only have two here in Albq.; the rest in CA. Won't be getting them 'till Sept. '09 when I visit for 3 weeks. To emphasize the specificness (Like that word?) of the eight, it was clearly Russell Coppel's intention to sell them in boxed sets of eight but Russell just didn't follow through on things like that and wound up selling the marbles wholesale/bulk. I got most of mine on trade. So with that thought of the basic eight(8) in mind it is not out of the question that there could be anomalies popping up from the run generally characterized as the Nova Run. Still for purposes of consistency and historical accuracy Russell did provide Peltier with color and pattern parameters which he wished them to adhere to so that he could have an outstanding group to sell in boxed sets. I do recall somewhat (Heck, this was 20 years ago!) some purplish hew sneaking into those B&W ones. Some hybrid mix. Gee, even amongst the few Paul Bunyan varieties there are some examples that do not fall into line and for wont of a name could be classified as hybrid. Remember, this is marbles we're talking about!!! Just take a gander at the Jabo runs of the past year! David

To answer your question about the name 'Grumpy,' I must digress. I'd given Steve considerable grief over the wholesale naming of marbles and protested strongly against any marble being named after me. He then threatened to name one 'Grumpy' based on my stance! Thankfully he relented and more appropriately named one of the Spring 2005 marbles 'Brassy' which is meant to represent my deserved or undeserved Marble Cop status. Honestly I really try to underplay this honor. ...David Chamberlain

Win, place or show you're still in the money! DC

I've noted this phenomenon as well. Sometimes those bubbles in the vanes actually blow the vane apart! Kinda cool! David

Mike Johnson did an article on this subject for the WVMCC newsletter. Covered all the bases pretty much and then some. Joe Bob says, "Check it out!"

Yes, Gino should have a handle on Peltier matbles but Gawd knows what configurations Bob Block may have done upon receipt of any marbles from Gino. The photo unfortunately doesn't blow-up well for full individual distinguishing and I would have to say that at the most it's a group of 13 marbles with some of the basic eight and variations thereof. The Pink Champagne isn't in there at all. And the far right one in the middle row with green -NO WAY. I must reiterate that my article covers it correctly and this group of 13 has the unfortunate experience of being brought to you through the filter of Bob Block. He has his strengths but this isn't one of them! David Chamberlain

Hey! Let Brian Estepp know I'm looking forward to hearing from him and I won't be put out if he includes some of these along with the others promised. Please do not bring to Amana for me though as I am going to be right up against it - to the nub - bulk-wise with my one carry-on! ....David Chamberlain

Gee, I'm not necessarily feeling decrepitude; I just don't have the mental acumen for such an unwieldy approach to being literate, much preferring to hit and run. I'm getting a kick out of these many spurts of inspiration especially when it involves jousting with marble friends. As for my favorite nephew, Brett Chamberlain, I've always known him to be a mensch. .....Uncle David

I'm making it a point to have a set of the eight different ones with me at the Amana show + a cpl. extra Novas. Almost all of the black on white ones had annealing surface fractures. Similiar problem with the blue on white. Also and rather interestingly many of the Root Beer Floats had tiny surface bubble trails. More like just sub-surface. They had the appearance much like what's-his-names 'Planet' marbles. Oh yeah, Josh Simpson and they're called Inhabited Planets. That was a run with considerable planning as Russell Coppel had definite parameters(colors and designs) that he wanted accomplished. And, of course, size! .....David Chamberlain

Re. zigafoose's enquiry re. the best book for getting a handle on Vitro. I'd have to say the Johnson-Metzler-Six book AMERICAN MACHINE-MADE MARBLES (2006). And if you could scare up one the Nat'l Marble Mus. book on Vitro-Agate, but AMMM first and foremost. And for nostalgia Castle & Peterson if only to get a feel for how early on the Vitro marbles were perceived. There's a certain pleasure in going back to the roots of appreciation. I suspect there's some anticipation of a book to come strictly on Vitro Agate Co. Maybe from Chuck Brandstetter but I don't know. He has written articles about their marbles so the interest is definitely there. Then, I've written over 24 marble articles and have no interest in tackling a marble book. Too many other things on my place: cycling, frisbee golf, doll collecting, etc. ....David Chamberlain

Thought I'd confuse matters more. By the way, I've some Czech buttons w/goldstone too. Then there's Czech. Bullet-mold marbles. Knowing the difference between old Czech. Bullet mold marbles and the post WWII ones takes some goings as well. I've a Four Pointer I put together I'll dredge up and post when I find it. I've given them considerable thought. Also Fiber-optic and Fiber Glass often get mixed up. The only person to have made Fiber Glass marbles has been Jeffrey Grey and he calls them Fiber Agates. I got him to make 15 this year. He hadn't made any for something like 4 years. It was like pulling teeth but they're incredible. I'm bringing a few of them to Amana. Anyway, there's a world of difference between fiber-optic and fiber glass when it comes to marbles. Then there's Catalin, a bakelite substance also used for buttons in the 20s/30s. I've seen 3 or 4 different colored Catalin marbles. I'm sure they were meant to be buttons and never were drilled but I've seen enough of them to make me wonder. They have a tiger-eye shimmer to them when you shift them around. No all of them but some. David Chamberlain

I've posted a halfway significant marble bibliography on Marble Mental this morning. Approx. 45 listings w/ISBN #s where available and additional access info. + commentary here and there. Hope this will help some of you in your search for those illusive marble books. Most are out-of-print but with the information I provide you might be able to scare them up on the online bookstores. You never know. David Chamberlain

Sometimes when we've a 15/16"+ we're inclined to call it 1" not for any reasons of inflation; it just seems natural 1" being such a standard size. Most of the marbles(the 8 of them) were 15/16" but it is not a surprise that some of them were 1" or even 15/16"- but I never saw anything like an 11/16" in the many 50lb boxes that Russell Coppel had of these marbles. Now I have had a 5/8" or 5/8"+ Root Beer Float with minimal provenance which put it back in the 40s/50s period. I was always perplexed by that marble. And I had a double-ingot RBF that blew my mind. Not from the Coppel special run though. For some reason Mike Johnson's book AMERICAN MACHINE-MADE MARBLES pg. 131 shows the date of the run as Oct. 27, 1988 and then in the very next paragraph he appears to reference the same run and puts it in 1989. I have no idea what's up with that. Next chance I get I'm sounding out Russell and maybe also getting some more history on the run. He was there at the time, in fact, he got run out at one point if you can believe it. He drove back from IL to CA with all that weight. On the same trip he had a box of sweet little pristine German Swirls with sharp pontils. They were totally frosted when he got to Santa Cruz CA. He 'bout died on seeing that. .....David

Good morning, Thought I'd weigh in on this one. Hard to credit the goldstone we know as being acrylic. Goldstone marbles started showing up in some qty. at marble shows in the late 80s. Russell Coppel had an arrangement with Red Wilson(See Barrett's "Aggies, Immies, Shooters & Swirls" pg. 77) and was wholesaeling them left and right to marble dealers/collectors. I've had three different colors. Fiber-optic marbles are an entirely different animal although they do have a shimmering color characteristic. Also when placed on top of text you can read it on the top of the marble. Cool! If the cable had been twisted the text would be reversed. Also cool! I sold a few at an embarrassing high price early on before I discovered that they were exceedingly plentiful. All of youse out there that I hammered.....you have a credit. Now let's not get crazy about this. I know who you are. Re: Goldstone. Got an email from Mike Barton today letting me know that he's a slut for aventurine. Well, actually he said "a fool for aventurine." So, what's the difference bet. GOLDSTONE and AVENTURINE? Huh? David Chamberlain

For the straight skinny on this special one day run at Peltier check out my article on Marble Mental titled NOVAS, ROOT BEER FLOATS and PINK CHAMPAGNES, etc. Everything You Ever Wanted to Know. My buddy Russell Coppel commissioned this run and I am intimately familiar with the eight different marbles that were made, all approx. 15/16". There was only one that was called a NOVA; it was not a group-heading for some of the other marbles, although there are three marbles in the group of eight that are Nova-like. You need to read and see the photo-article to understand. Also you can check the WVMCC newsletter or their CD which contains the same article. Save yourself some trouble. David Chamberlain

Hi there, Need to send you sumthin'. Could you provide me with an address? My email is [email protected]. Won't be able to get back to the computer 'till tomorrow morning. Just popped up a short pc. on the Board here. You might like it. A marble good-feel thing. David Chamberlain

Marbles connect us to our beginnings as the most positively pure of playthings long before we invested them with values - years removed from their ordinary nature. Yet who among us does not remember that one special marble that held a possessive fascination for us, a foretelling of future worth. How we esteemed that trivial plaything, a harbinger of future longings. Even people I talk with who haven't given a thought to marbles in years suddenly come alive. Often I've witnessed a Pavlovian turn of their wrist and trigger-like readiness of their thumb. They're a kid again. And who among us isn't! The wonder, the delight, the keeness of it all. An unearthing discovery, the bringing to light that which had been forgotten - granting an aesthetic to a plaything. Ain't marbles great! .....David Chamberlain

You gotta check out the promo ad at the bottom of the 1st article sighted here for 'Chamberlain's Colic, Cholera and Diarrhoea Remedy.' 25 cents a bottle! I've at least a doz. early 20th Century bottles of Chamberlain products. Gets me through the day! David Chamberlain

Looking into marbles affords a kaleidoscopic divination of possibilities. And swirls provide the best visual pathways turning forever in our hand to reveal infinite vistas. Then we bring light to these marbles directed from above to reflect from the depths or behind to literally make obvious glass now seen clearly to come to life! How wonderfully 'transparent' and transporting. There is a meditative and ecstatic joy in contemplating marbles. David Chamberlain

Boxing your own marbles is visceral. David Chamberlain