Steph

I wanted one of Jess's marbles to be a big Superior. But I don't even know if Superiors came in large size. Did they? Anyone want to share some big Vitros? That could be fun.

I'm making my peace with that.

See, that's the thing. We could sort through all the ads and find the most logical explanations for all the information and get the Akro Ace and Moss Agate names completely straight ... but it wouldn't matter. Too many collectors are attached to the names like Lemonade, Cherry-Ade, Ace (for some of the less colorful Moss Agates),etc. People don't care that the actual Aces were a different kind of marble which very often look like Prize Names. The collector naming traditions are so well-established for Akro that I don't think people care that much about what Akro actually called the marbles. Akro Specials is another case. I can call them Tri-Color Agates all day long, but people like to call three-color corks Specials. We're not going to change habits by pointing out evidence that Akro used Special as a catch-all term.

Yes, there are a lot of Ades in that box. Ades is a collector name. Akro's name for Ades was Moss Agates. And there were a lot of other marbles that collectors have different names for which Akro sold as Moss Agates. The Moss Agate was the top of their line. The name Moss Agate is sort of boring to collectors now, but Akro sold a lot of interesting marbles under that name. Good chance the marbles which some call Ringers were also Moss Agates. (One color + wispy white + some clear glass + maybe some cloudy glass if you look far enough in.)

A Hot House marble. Probably posted before but hey, it's a looker.

Here's a link http://www.ebay.com/sch/10000marbles/m.html

Got Brian Bowden's current list so that will give me many more names. They're sorted alphabetically by first name though, so it may take me a bit to collate.

Here's a thread on Aces: http://marbleconnection.com/topic/17380-akro-aces-early-1930s Here's a Moss Agate thread which I only meant to be for the patch-style marbles, but I added a new post with some swirl/cork info at post #9: http://marbleconnection.com/topic/7863-moss-agate-type-marbles/

Okay, if anyone would like to add examples of the swirly/corky Moss Agates, they're welcome here now. As noted, I had intended to keep this thread about patches, but I need a thread to link to for the swirly/corky Moss Agate discussions. I'd have to put a little bit of effort into gathering the advertising evidence for the existence of swirly Moss Agates. It's out there though. For example in one ad, Moss Agates are described as having "exquisite patterns". Patches wouldn't be described as having "exquisite patterns". It's a little confusing since the description is next to a photo of a patch. But Akro ads did a lot of cutting and pasting. Old descriptions with new pics. Old pics with new descriptions. I've gathered a lot of it together before, but I can't remember where I put it. When I find it, I'll add it to this thread. In the meantime, here is a sample box of Moss Agates with salesman's price label affixed:

I have a couple of links. I need to do an update on one. I'll post 'em here soon.

Gonna go with Chinese handmade.

Could be a Chinese handmade. At least that's my only guess for now.

Thanks! Added.

here we go http://marbleconnection.com/topic/12733-acme-realers/?p=108127

That one is a beauty.

I think that's these guys: http://www.mibbage.com/consignments.htm

Thanks I'm starting to really want to say Vitro on it! But if it has, say, six ribbons, and if they can be interpreted as being red, red, yellow on one side, and yellow, red, red on the other, then that could be a K&M, right? Can you squint and see six ribbons?

Neato neato neato neato neato neato

Now I'm going to ask a big favor. Can we have a photo of it with some other marbles? It's so bright, I'm not sure I'm seeing all the colors and textures right. With a few other marbles in the picture, I might be more sure about the visual cues. Until you said 7/8", I started wondering if it could be a Vitro Superior. I don't know if they made Superiors that big.

Got 'em all I think. Is R. S. Topp actually Robert and Shirley Topp?

Good chance. May we see the cutlines head on?