I'llhavethat1

What key words were you using in that search?

I've heard the 'rule of thumb' about 12 lines as well. some give the illusion of more..especially with a tight twisting action. 26 lines lines is nuts, haven't seen one with that many before

Nice pattern on the agate

If not Dali, maybe Steranko?

Lol, probably the blind leading the blind but here are a couple thoughts A) If it were abrasion you'd normally expect wear/abrasion to have uniform coverage ie: sea glass. Seems odd that the 'clear' seems to follow the pattern (last pic) from pole to pole, B- Or, maybe marble cane was exposed to some serious heat(?) on the bottom and sides, leaving the top non-affected. Twisting the cane into a marble could explain why the clear glass follows the twist of the pattern. But could the bottom and sides of a marble cane be heated that quick without impacting the top as well? Doubt it. C) Some type of contamination on the rounding bowl- dew/dust/donkeydirt that left it's mark on most of the surface but eventually burned away or was wiped off. But it would have to roll a certain way for the clear to remain. D) Another possibility (which could be the easiest explanation) is someone took a paintbrush, a damaged marble, and gave it a swath of resin pole to pole that followed the pattern. Although from what I see in the pics I highly doubt this is the case

This is the part that I'm a bit perplexed on but I wanted to let the auction run it's course before further comment. To me it makes sense that if it was possible to make opaque glass during that period, other marble manufacturers/glass huts or whatever could have also been doing it. Or maybe the 'Greiner' company went out of business after producing the marbles we're associating them with, and these are closely guarded formulas taken to the grave. I don't know. What piques my interest is seeing these questionable opaque colors found along side high quality handmades, (not saying 'Greiners' define that category) but the patterns/construction I would consider to be from the earlier part of the handmade era. To make it a bit more interesting they usually pop up in the UK, and in the size suitable for Solitaire boards. Who knows, a lot can happen in a 20 year period so I can buy in to the fact that as popularity of solitaire went up between 1890-1910, they were pumped out a lot faster or sourced from a different supplier with their other top-secret opaque glass recipes who could meet the demand Gonna have to ponder this a bit more... but reading between the lines, is it fair to say that we'd have a tough time finding a German handmade marble that has opaque colors other than white and yellow with a faceted pontil? And not a Greiner. lol

Yeah the detail on the figure looked a little too good to be true. Any guesses where/when it was made. Can't say I've seen one before.

Is it even glass??

Good points all around, maybe the pontils could shed some light? Or construction, presence of mica, colors indicate something with regards to era

Good luck with the auction, some of the machine made guys --- I understand where they question things, which is human nature. My guess is these were made earlier than most of the more common 'onionskins' The opaque colors can/could throw people off

Is there a possibility of the white/yellow/blue ones being European?

haven't seen a Pelt like that

Nice

Some other favorite purples, I should probably take some new pics

Never knew what to make of this one, looked like someone spilled their metallic lavender nail polish

Hopefully its new owner will also enjoy the purple

Dunno, far from my area, thought the pic might help anyways.

Ok, checking your pic again I see uncanny similarities in a couple other ones as well (which is kind of weird, maybe coincidental)

Aha Found a pic of the one I was thinking, middle bottom but it isn't a shooter

OK, I'll bite...so what is it? Here's another brick that's seen better days (but still one of my favorites)

That is a nice Lutz, here are a couple other red, white, blues

Is Vitro a possibility on the one up front? I think I've seen some shooters with those colors referred to as Vitro. As far as the question of who made marbles with purple, might be easier to ask who didn't

or maybe it's a safe paver

Nice pic on #6 (wish I had something more useful to add)