Steph

me too!

Sure thing. Here's a thread with some more Japanese marbles to look at:

It is cool. The foreign versions are harder to come by than the Peltier versions. At least in the U.S. You might have better luck up in Canada.

Note the "Pelt flip flop" ... which has the white ribbon on one side lining up with the red ribbon on the other side ... and vice versa. That's a great sign of Pelt Rainbos ... for the ones with more than one color of ribbons. They might not meet as nicely as yours do at the seams, but they'll be arranged like yours -- e.g., red over white on the one side and white over red on the other.

That's such a great one.

you know me so well

Eeek! I don't know! With three of this morning's other five looking foreign, I have no idea where to cast my lot on this one.

As with the lime green based one, I'm leaning Japanese here.

This is close enough to a Peltier pattern and Peltier glass that it might be another Rainbo. But I'm leaning Japanese with this one. The cool kind, like from maybe the 1930's. (We haven't pinned down dates.)

So, I'm thinking GoofyCat's marble over here is a Figure 8. Are we comfortable saying they're from Japan? Why am I getting this niggling doubt ... that maybe some think strong chance they're from a different country ... been so long since we've talked about them that I've forgotten what the verdict was.

So, I knocked out a couple of your new posts as what seemed like easy Peltier Rainbos but a couple of the windows are still open as I type this because I got a maybe foreign fell for them. This one though ... definitely foreign feel. I think it's one of those we call a Figure 8. I can't remember if we ever got a majority to feel comfortable about what country they might have come from. Japan? Germany? I'll throw that question open to the general forum.

Peltier Rainbo

Peltier Rainbo

So, my source is a marble maker and says he never heard of Thorium being used but once read in an article on a company overseas that at been experimenting with it as a possible replacement for uranium. He expects it's possible for some of the glass by-product into a marble maker's hands. Also, he noted that there might be some issues with the radioactivity of the Thorium ... so don't put it up to your eyes unless you're sure it's okay! So, Richard, to add a little background and to put it together with what I learned just now: Marblemakers do a lot of glass recycling. They don't mix up all their glass from scratch with a formula anymore. The recycled glass from other sources could have included Thorium. My marble-making friend is not aware of it being done on a systematic basis.

What am I doing up this late?

*swoon*

Yea!!! I'm excited for you! Good idea to preserve the packaging. With digital cameras and computers, you can keep a record of what you get and when you get it, just in case you ever want to remember. I let some of my early purchases get mixed in with each other, which messed with clues I could have had about what they were.

Completely and totally unfamiliar to me

I'm not very good at keeping marble bags closed, but if it's a vintage bag, then be very very sure you want to take that step.

Have received word from an esteemed collector that he has known of all three kinds of packaging for some time -- the Master, the Penny King and the Alox. Has had Alox bags with these marbles for well over ten years -- from two different collectors. Two bags with four marbles and one bag with seven marbles. I never heard of the seven-count bag before. So that answers the question about them being known in Alox packaging before the marble collecting world got to know Nancy. Now the questions are when were they sold and when were they made. The Master packaging is from the 1950's or later. There was some doubt about whether Master Glass could have made such pretty marbles in that decade. But they did make smaller cat's eyes which are quite pretty -- clear base, nice shades. So it's not hard at all for me to believe that they could have made larger marbles with similar glass.

Never heard of it. While other people are thinking about it, I sent a question off to a friend who might know.

Show us pictures first! We could tell you if it's one you're likely to never come across again intact ....