I'llhavethat1

Interesting. Most of the opaque swirls I've come across are 5/8" and white/green/purple seems to be a common combo. The bags from Germany have a range of wirepull sizes. Haven't seen opaque swirls in any sort of packaging before. Winnie, I think your clear/blue/white marble could have been made on the same machine if you picture the 'clear' glass replaced by opaque white glass. here's some different color combo's 5/8"

Those are sweet. I always liked the wirepulls, but don't see too many that color red. 13/16 is a good size for the opaque swirls (white/green/purple). I wonder if they all came from a solitaire set?

Maybe wirepulls will come to be generalized as the 'West Virginia Swirls' from Europe until more is known (ie: not bad thing). Here's a blue/green/white I thought was pretty cool

Your first cat has a tail like a tadpole, check out this swimmer lol

Most of the green sparkly stuff is probably aventurine and a by-product from the ingredients used in the glass (ie: not intentional). Still looks pretty cool though especially on a sunny day. The second one with the streak on the surface was likely caused by aluminum or some other soft metal in the batch. There are stories about beer cans etc getting tossed in the furnace and results in that metallic streak. Here's a huge one with a bit of aventurine beside a smaller one for scale.

auction link is ?

Company names aside, aren't the ones with the cork pattern originating from the middle of the marble sometimes referred to as augers? and the ones with the pattern closer to the surface are snakes? or is that just confusing the matter

Marbles for Christmas are top of the list, Merry Christmas to all (and if Santa brings good marbles, the tree will look even more festive-er next year!)

Winnie, this post got me to thinking if the factory/equipment in Netherlands was somehow connected with the Hopf factory in Germany. What do you think?

Maybe it wasn't as exciting as I thought it was then...could just be a boring 3-1/2" ball made out of resin or something and not glass. bumpity bump

Wondered what your thoughts are on this item, wouldn't normally post eBay stuff but the auction is old and pics will likely go down soon. http://www.ebay.ca/itm/330651435439?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649 Maybe a ball from a big ass check valve? It almost looks like glass from the bubble pop in the second pic...

Is there are a better scan? I'm thinking opal agates might be clambroths, and Klondykes are goldstone (Lutz) which would make sense since the Klondike gold rush would have been ~ 10 years prior. At first I thought maybe Allies = glass and Agates = stone but it's not consistent from what I can make out in the article. Other points of curiosity from what I can make out is the price of Red Agates vs Opal Agates, the size 15+ of Stone Agates, the 5% cash discount, left hand twist on some of the single marbles, and the premium price for Real Agates. Given the pre-WW1 date I'd wager these were all imported from Germany. My attempt at a California Sulphide joke was terrible

Good pics will be important to bidders at auction. There are marbles with a similar pattern and colors worth a fraction of a true Pelt Superman - still fool a lot of people but make for a lot of reluctant bidders as well I won't speculate on what you could get for it but from what I see in the pics it looks like the real deal to me and with that pattern and at 23/32" you should do just fine

Is it a Marble King?

Cool item but I can't help but thinking it's possible and very probable that items could be imported from another country and repackaged/resold by the importing company. Japan, Germany, USA, Canada, England etc. Don't let that slow the search, it's still an interesting piece of history but I don't think Sulphides (if that's what I see bottom right of the posted page) were made in Canada ----but there is an Ontario California. hmmm lol

well, now that's very interesting and it's good to see some history/background. I'd love to see the article. It's great how the 'marble connection' can bring people together from various parts of the world

I believe these are what's referred to as a Pelt Woody, not nearly as much blue/green/purple hues like yours appears to have. Plus these look more like wood panelling and yours is a smoother butterscotch

I'd say Pelt based on the first pics, almost like a 'woody'. Sometimes the blue/purple can appear more as an oily sheen like an oilslick and as far as I know that's what would make it a 'copperhead' more that a 'woody'

Chemical properties also have a lot to do with it, not all glass has the same specific gravity ie: lead glass being heavier. You'd see this mostly under static conditions like a furnace. Trying to mix/cool glass in a marble size with different properties will probably be more difficult for reasons like COE than anything else mentioned above. Except for the unicorns. Anything is possible.

"..Do differant formulas have differant densities?.." Yes, but probably not very significant when it comes to a ~5/8" marble glob on the rollers. I expect at a larger scale, say in a furnace, density (specific gravity) would play a bigger part since heavy sinks and light rises = separation/statification. With compression and squeezing what might be a bigger factor is the apparent viscosity (resistance to flow). Lower viscosities "flow" better than higher viscosities. Think of trying to roll a ball out of bubble gum (high viscosity) and adding water (lower viscosity). Of the two, the water will be more likely to squeeze out. Most materials viscosity will change with temperature

My guess is an odd German/Foreign 'striped opaque' (with close seams).

Hi Dink , no, the sandy background seems to show a 'truer' color of the marbles than other types of background (if I can get the pics right), and at this time of year it also helps remind me of summer! The opaque lighter purple color threw my off since I'd associate a light purple more to Vitro than Master. The brown + pattern says Master to me but who knows? Not sure, maybe I should have posted in ID section but would love to see other Masters with a similar purple, sunbursts or otherwise

Ooo Is that blue aventurine I'm seeing in the first one? The others are awesome too, looks like a nice fold in the pattern under the surface of the second one. Nice haul

Cool, any thoughts if they were intended for a specific game with the qty's of each color varying? Or maybe the boxes were filled randomly, and then at some point re-arranged by color (which could just be a common way of anybody inclined to 'sort').

Cool, hadn't seen one quite like it before