Steph

P.s., Jelle, I gotta thank you. My nieces and nephews have decided I'm cool, because I know "the marble run guy".

Jelle, your narrator is brilliant!

Marble maker Sonny Miller passed away this morning. He leaves an illustrious legacy. Condolences to his family and friends.

Well, similar in one sense. They are two-seam marbles with patches and/or ribbons. That's a good early sort to make. Pulling those out from the swirls. A variety of makers are represented here. Age range 1930's to 1960's. Top row, left to right: #1 Vitro blackline all-red, #2 maybe Master patch -- possibly an Akro patch, but I'm leaning toward Master, #3 Peltier Rainbo Bottom row: #1 Vitro all-red, #2 not sure -- maybe Vitro -- a closer look at the white area could shed more light, #3 Marble King Tri-Color Rainbow

Ha! Yeah, I got stuck on that part, too.

Sweet! Good find. Thank you. Cat's eyes are pétalos.

http://www.revistacabal.coop/actualidad/tinka-la-unica-fabrica-de-bolitas-de-la-argentina ^^ That article about the Tinka marble company in Argentina suggests that there were at least three marble factories there at one time. Only Tinka now (assuming Tinka is still around).

nice array

thanks

I think modern.

One more from my Photobucket ... a bag Marblealan sold:

Still haven't uploaded my old pictures onto my "new" computer, but I found this in my Photobucket account. "Fancy Tiger Eyes" Posted by Craig:

A2 and B2 are Alley Agates. From the 1940's. All four marbles are in the general category of "West Virginia Swirls". There were about 10 companies in West Virginia which made similar-looking swirls. (There was also a company in Missouri which had WV machines and usually is included in this group because it's hard to distinguish.) Sometimes the swirl pattern or color combos or size are distinct enough that we can nail a company down, or at least narrow down the choices, but it's tricky. So often the ID answer will be "WV Swirl" and we have to leave it at that. There's also some possibility of a swirl turning out to be Christensen Agate, which is not a WV Swirl. Your first marble, A1, I said was a WV swirl, but I can't swear it's not Christensen. Just odds say it's not. Maybe someone else will feel more positive about it. My first thought is Champion for B1, but maybe Alley. (So to be safe, sticking with "WV Swirl".) Swirls like A1 are sometimes also/instead lumped into the "Transparent Swirl" category. That covers both the Christensen and Alox possibilities as well as all the WV choices.

If it's a marble with two seams/poles/cutlines/pontils, the two most important views are those two ends (in my opinion). If it's a swirl, then it's naturally more random. One to four marbles per thread is a good idea. If you think you're on a roll and wanna check to see if some photo is all Akro corkscrews or all Marble King Rainbows or something like that which we might be able to deal with quickly, then you could post more at a time. Still best to have them in some clearly identifiable array -- so we can easily identify which ones we're singling out.

Hi Paul. Sounds familiar. Welcome. ... but what is a striker? (I'm always up for learning new regional/historical marble names.)

spectacular

The pix in that article are a little fuzzy. Hoping we can gin up some more pix in this new thread I started: http://marbleconnection.com/topic/22953-vitro-tiger-eyes/

The Tiger Eye was a veneered style. Could have white or clear in the middle. With the colored ribbons layered over the base. Most had white on the surface. Not all did though. This article was written some years back by a Vitro guru who was studying the different types of Tiger Eyes Vitro made in the 50's. http://joemarbles.com/3Marble Articles/Chuck Brandstetter/What is a Vitro Tiger Eye.htm Description of four Tiger Eye combos from the article: *Type 1…A clear base glass with a color patch on top, a white patch on the bottom and a two color (half & half) ribbon in the middle (Photo 1). *Type 2…A clear base glass with a color patch on top, a different color patch on the bottom and a one color (half & half) ribbon in the middle (Photo 2). *Type 3…A clear base glass with a color patch on top, a different color patch on the bottom and a white (half & half) ribbon in the middle (Photo 3). Type 4…An opaque white base glass with a color patch on top, a different color patch on the bottom and a white (half & half) ribbon in the middle. (Photo 4).

Our pictures seem to mostly be missing from the last Tiger Eye thread I found. Let's see your Tiger Eyes!

I think I see enough now. Thanks. I'm not sure which era it came from though. Might be a Vitro Tri-Lite, from the 1930's.

More Tiger Eyes

Would like to see larger photos of the seams .