Steph

The one on the left has a bit of drizzle so we could be looking at the tail of a handgathered marble there.

The one on the right? Is that a transparent red base? Is the swirl white? I see a slight yellow cast but am not sure if that means anything.

Cherry drops. One cat's eye and four slags?

*waves at Alyce*

I was able to briefly study a group of marbles that came from a dump in Shanghai. And I can't swear to it, but the way I recall it, all of the swirls when the "wrong" way. (There were more in addition to these, but I don't have as clear of pix of them. Still I think all went the wrong way.) Never learned whether it was a generic garbage dump or a glass factory dump but this is the main inspiration of my idea that maybe in China they had operations set up opposite of how Americans did it.

Nice pic, That1.

I think so. It's so full of white that the white we would normally see coiling inside is busting out onto the surface, so the spectacular "wrong" coiling should really be compared to the innards of a normal slag. [Insert photo here.] And then it finishes off at the top with a little tail. ... Is that what you mean ... or am I projecting?

John, I may not be understanding about your green one. I feel like I'm seeing a "proper" 9 and tail on that one. Small, but going in the expected direction.

Ohhhh ... "Leighton" ... I didn't consider that. That's a loaded name. There are German handmade slag-like marbles which used to be called Leighton. And there are American handmades which actually did come from Leighton companies, in the 1800's to maybe early 1900's. Just slightly overlapping with the beginning of the M.F. Christensen period. But they're outside my comfort zone. So I'll get the popcorn. (p.s., I question the bottom purple one being MFC ... but I better shush now and wait for other comment and enjoy my popcorn)

I do not recognize that as MFC. Opaque yellow with white? I do not recognize that combo at all. Not for MFC. If it is handgathered, my guess would be Asian.

Shell, I'm not sure about Zebra on yours. Looks like blue base with white ribbons. I don't know what name that would be though, so maybe I'm being too rigid to require the base to be white. Maybe others have decided to include it in the Zebra umbrella and I missed it! Richard, the Pelt seams can be tricky to find when the thing is swirly. And the ribbons can be hard to count. But somewhere in there there need to be four (or six) separate ribbons. The other possibility is that it's an Alley with basically one ribbon that might occasionally be broken up by dipping into the base.

White base and black ribbons says Zebra to me. Unless they're not Pelt at all. Are you sure you see a Pelt structure?

Akro corks came about 50-50 in the direction that they spun. But those were purely machine-made. It seems natural that the handgathered marbles would mostly spin the same way. Like mostly being made by righthanders working in an orderly fashion. But that's just my impression. I could be full of water. I have seen some marbles which I think of as Asian which have a spin going opposite of what I think is the usual direction. So that got me wondering if in Asia they had their marble-making process set up opposite of ours. Hopefully someone who knows more will weigh in ... and maybe have pictures. This discussion probably could use some pictures.

I defer to John's gut on this.

Yeah, I'll just play it safe and say "slag" but your sense in hand of it being a "corkscrew" is why some of us are getting a bit of a handgathered feel from it.

Ooops, you do have three Pelt blue and yellows in this batch, but they wouldn't be called Cub Scouts either. Peltier Peerless Patches. AKA PPP's Here's a Peltier Cub Scout. It's from the MarbleAlan site. Sorry, not posed so you can see the seams and the NLR structure.

Ahh ... I'm kinda leaning MK on the "ugh". But at the same time, I would probably put it in the same box as my Vitro All Reds ... just sorta on the edge. How helpful is that? The one with two orange ribbons remains weird. I think it's a PelTroKing.

I agree Akro. I don't think it's common usage to call them Cub Scouts. But I see why someone would. Those colors on a Pelt NLR or Marble King Rainbow would get a Cub Scout designation.

Here's my question from 2008 about the handmade kind: http://marbleconnection.com/topic/7963-please-tell-me-about-submarines-handmade/

*pupils dilated*

Ugh could be Vitro but more views might give something else, say MK, or more views might mean it's one of those that I can never decide what it is! Ergo, ugh.