Could be what I'm seeing as the amber/gray/ivory part in your marble is actually clear ? Here area a couple oxblood patches with similar amber/gray/ivory and a bit of clear (of course not as swirly). Nice marble and you might be correct the alien spaceship landed somewhere in between and I agree it's usually seen with blue or green
I'd go with Akro based on pic 4. Bold ox with the opaque white in that view. The amber/gray/ivory I think is part of the oxblood just getting started or ending
I'd go with Pelt top right in post #12, and maybe post #9. Rest look like Marble King maybe (or something other than Pelt or Akro)? Just my guess, and of course I haven't seen them all
If you mean 3rd edition, plate 338 is a slightly different angle. not much, but same marble (just happened to have the book beside me and got to flipping through the pages).
So is it safe to say nobody around here has examples of these in original packaging? And the two color opaque handgathered examples as shown are the only type this company made (or would it make sense they made slags, and others etc...)
Quite possible. Quality control sometimes calls for things other than aesthetics. ie: the marble needs to be round, so it rolls. And if it's chipped or damaged in production they probably wouldn't spend the time to finish it/ship it/etc. Don't get me wrong I think the colors and patterns are beautiful.
Also the group of three look awesome together
I think it all depends on how well the 'attempt' went. Surely there was some type of quality control so if the first-off cane looked half decent and was reasonably round they would take the time to grind the pontil and finish it off. If it was terribly out of round or had debris/scorch mark etc it would get junked.
Going back to the first picture, in the first post, on the platform is there any reason you couldn't have a trough (connecting the holes) or multiple troughs (leading up to each hole) instead of just a hole?