Steph

beautiful

I have a lutz onionskin he made, but mine would be a late-era marble. It is from 2013.

I would have guessed Asian, and Asian marbles were imported to Europe. So that's probably still my guess. It doesn't look Japanese, but I'm wondering if it could be a Hong Kong marble. Without remembering any details of what I saw, I remember that I had the _impression_ that the early Hong Kong marbles could be somewhat amorphous. *open to education on this one*

Scott's friend Martin posted this in Scott's memorial thread. I figured I should ask about it in the general chat. Does anyone have any information about the Kingly Line? Pictures of it? Knowledge of who owns any? Thanks.

I have a stack of boxes saying "sort and shred". This ad is why the boxes don't simply say "shred after such-and-so date". Last night I went through boxes from 2009 to 2011. 99.5% of the paper went into the shredder and is now on the way to use as bedding for puppies, but .5% needed rescuing.

Good work!

Not worthless!

Welcome! It's a great hobby and even better that you can share it with family.

Four at once ... nice display

@Pinx ??

That was a quick trip upstairs. As I thought, the vanes on your marble look much more orderly and better connected than any of my large modern MK cats. I'm leaning vintage.

That's where I would have it. An inch? I'm thinking you might have a rare St. Marys. But it would be so rare I'm afraid to say it for sure. It does NOT look like my modern MK's as far as I can recall but you're sending me up to the attic to check out vane textures. Not a color combination I have anywhere. Where did you find it?

Looks like fun All Products (intrism.com)

You've come a long way, baby! You're definitely in the Advanced Placement program.

I don't know what that is, but I like it!

❤️ I would love to have one of your marbles. Or two? Let me know if you have any leftover beyond what you're hoping to provide in other venues.

I adore the giant superball-looking one. That's a Vacor Fiesta.

Congrats on the Dime box. I only remember the nickel boxes. So this one surprised me. Good find.

Yes, the bag would be modern compared to handmades, but still maybe vintage. The beach ball style is a lovely German variation of the cat's eye family. I have no idea what they typically go for though. I don't know if if I have a single one, much less a bag. They're on my "would be nice" list.

A related historical tidbit is that Cracker Jack also had individually wrapped Akros as prizes inside the Cracker Jack box. Larry White's book Cracker Jack Toys gave 1928 as the date for the prize. White said that the marble was a red and blue swirl but I can't think of which Akro production item that would have been in the 1920s. The wrapper is the most valuable part to Cracker Jack collectors since the marble itself would be hard be sure was original. This is a picture I just snapped with my phone from Ravi Piña's book Cracker Jack Collectibles. The marble looks more red and white to me, which would be easier to place as a 1920s Akro. [Edit: The marble in my photo isn't looking red and white to me. Maybe blue and white? My phone camera does often turn things blue, but looking back at the original page in the book I'm not sure what color I'm seeing there either. Might be blue. Now I'm wondering if someone meant that the marble would be red or it would be blue. Not that it would be both. That would make much more sense as far as 1920's Akro production goes.]

My go-to marble packaging guy has confirmed that those would be the original marbles. I am pretty sure I have seen a photo of the box before. I looked through some marble books and did a search here at Marble Connection. Didn't find the box (yet). However, I did find copies of some of the advertising for it that I had posted way back in 2009. Not sure were I got the photos from, probably a Cracker Jack site, and I don't have the exact age of those. However, the scans are dated 1929. The scans look like George Sourlis' work. I bet I have some of the actual ads among my own magazine collection. George gifted me many magazines from that time period containing early Akro advertisement. But for now here are the pictures I found.

Oh gosh. Very nice. Handle with care! No matter what, I would not change out those marbles. It is possible they are original. If not, still no harm in leaving them. Maybe some kid kept his favorite marbles in that box, which would be cool in its own way. But those could very well be early Akros. Much historical information has been lost or blurred by people removing contents that they mistakenly believed did not belong in a box, and sometimes even go so far as to backfill the boxes with what they thought was more accurate contents.

displays amazingly with the underlighting

Welcome. Marble to me. Contemporary art glass sphere

Welcome. Sweet display.