Steph

I was thinking likely Alley for three of them. I guess I should have put those three in a column, eh? ... the two in front of the maybe-Vitro ... and the one on the right of the maybe-Vitro

Thanks! Those look like a match for the two on the right.

Another good question

Mostly swirls here. A couple of other marbles said they wanted to join in because they had orangey shades. Don't blame me. I'm just doing what they said. That orangey and black one on the center left made me think Pelt but the ribbon structure looks like a swirl. The back left one has distinct seams ... at 90 degrees from each other. On the back row second from the left, that marble has seams too. A peachy V on one side and lots of green the other. Did Vitro make a "coral"? In the front, on the left, the swirl looks almost red ... but not quite. A tad less red in hand than in the pic, I think. What shade would you call the ones on the right? Still coral? Brown? (A little darker in hand than in the pic.)

Here we go! From Smitty's 2007 Philly album.

I once saw a picture which was said to be Eric Estrada at a marble show, but then someone else made it sound like it was a joke and was really someone else. But maybe it really was him. Here's a picture of him with some marble jewelry: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/156922368237009546/

Greg, I think the man who brought us A Christmas Story was a collector. Bob Clark.

Thanks Al (and Bob). I changed your bitmap to a jpeg, Al. Hope that was okay.

Yeah, mine is pretty thready too. I was upset that my old camera was unable to pick up the detail. I should try again with my new camera. But if enough got through for you to see, that's what matters.

Louise Brooks http://louisebrookssociety.blogspot.com/2012/10/cool-pic-of-day-louise-brooks-shoots.html (okay, I don't really recognize the name but someone here might )

Jackie Cooper

This is where I usually let Mike, Ann and Galen debate. Will be interesting to have you in the mix now.

Between you and Bob and Winnie we could have a magnificent marble art thread. And I'm sure I left someone out but hopefully they wouldn't take offense at me forgetting them and would join in too.

The peach and the seam shape make me think Akro. (and the gills) Not sure about the gold. And not sure what my second guess would be. Maybe someone will come in an make a case for Vitro. Here's an old, not very clear pic of my Akro patch which that reminds me of. Is that a wee bit of gold on mine? *going to look for where it is so I can see it in hand*

Thanks for the new link. Good luck to the seller.

lol @ beer goggles

*ooph*

That's cool looking. Even though the thumbnails aren't opening for me, I can tell that much.

Beautiful.

With the Akro v. Master case we have a unique perspective though. "The court personally inspected this machine in the plant of the defendant in the presence of both parties, ...." We get a pretty detailed eye witness view. Oooh oooh oooh (channeling Arnold Horshack) ... this inspection probably happened in the mid-30's. The ruling was dated January 16, 1937. So maybe the early sunbursts were done by injection and then by the mid-30's Master was back to the single source method the court observed. That theory might be flawed since the court said that they didn't see any history of patent violation, and that what the plaintiff had supposedly seen and complained about was from an experimental phase at Master and the court saw no evidence that the marbles were made commercially. But anyway ... the court was looking at relatively late marbles, so my theory about the nicest tiger eye styles being made early could still hold and the court was studying how Master made the less flashy marbles.

The investigation for the Akro vs. Master lawsuit said Master didn't use the injection method. Maybe I'm incorrect about when the nice Tiger Eye type Sunbursts were made. Maybe they weren't made as early as I thought.

I didn't see a patent either. Got the impression that they used what was at that point general knowledge in their trade and then tinkered.