I'llhavethat1

And another three

I can't say these are my best or rarest three, but they're some of my favorites

At a glance I wondered how much of that article would even be considered accurate. Does "Semi-mechanical" on the German handmades account for a grinding wheel??

Was there a Blue Latt in this auction somewhere?

Probably had a lot to do with the industrial revolution. Things made leaps and bounds back then, machining etc. Augers have been around a bit longer

A jar of Citrus-es (or even exotics) sounds good to me. Big ol' jarful of marbles. yum

I don't know the specific topography of the area or what archives would show, but I know of a bunch of smokestacks that used to be around, at factories, that aren't there any more. Same with the factories. I don't mean in Europe, I'm just talking generally. Back in the old days there were a lot of factories that burned down and chimneys that eventually had to be demolished since they became a safety hazard. Interesting marble topic/discussion

Cool! The smaller mib with the bag is even cooler

Rich, I'd also think that torch made marbles vs. marbles made from furnace might change the way the sparkles get spread out. I like the sounds of a purple aventurine though!

"...didn't use aventurine in mass producing marbles for 2 reasons: one is cost and the other is usage/application was difficult" "...believed by most in the collecting community that aventurine was not used on purpose in machine made marbles" That sounds about right. Cool handmade! Big for that type

Merry Christmas to all Marble Connection-ers! and everyone else too

Happy Holidays!

Nice wirepulls in this thread, A blue/white in clear glass shooter was my fav when I was a kid. Still looking for it. Nancy, the circle you see might be from the marbles being wet or underground at some point, likely a "rust stain". It makes sense if you get a marble wet, the moisture or drop will go to the lowest point multiply that by a few decades and you'd get a stain similar to what you're seeing there.

When backlit, if the stretched bubbles seem to be elongated in the direction of one "pole" to the opposite "pole" in a slightly twisted pattern that says handmade to me also. Nice color.

Cool, I took some pics of one a while back but they just don't do it justice. Similar in the sense it's green, white (w/ sparkles in the green only though) and some type of 9 and tail pattern. I'll see if I can get a better pic. It was just green and white if I recall, no blue or purple. *edit* Well, I might have to wait for a sunny day, or a better camera. lol. Winnie, I'm envious of your marble and photography. There is some incidental aventurine in this marble which I'm not quite able to capture, but if you squint you can see a couple "streaks" between 2 and 4, and some sparkles between 7 and 12

This gets more interesting as time goes on.

Wow, a molten glob of glass is what I'd expect from Roman era, not a pattern with precise spacing/banding like that? Another interesting part of this thread...do the "scale balancing" marbles weigh in at anything close to a current (or old) unit of measuring weight? Cool topic,

So is it a really deep transparent purple then? I always wondered if they were opaque "black" cased with a clear glass. Either way I'd say fairly uncommon, I've been looking for a while.

Nice, how do you think that pontil in that second pic came about? Looks kind of odd from the pic?

Nice

Sounds like a good start to me!

lol, that would have been a tough challenge. Back in the day some kid probably spent a lot of time busting it up, just trying to get to the animal inside

two pontils is a pretty good indication of a cane cut marble. You see less "slags" than the more traditional handmade "core" swirls, but they are out there. I've posted some pics before if I can find them

bumping for curiousity sake

Grinding a pontil is an extra step. Other extra steps could be roundness or quality of construction etc. Ton's were made, but as far as availability I'd say less common. I agree w/ Ann