Steph

Me too. And they're in the salesman sample cases. http://i119.photobuc...lerboxes007.jpg (big pic, might need to double click for full)

Bump in case anyone can elaborate/corroborate ..... or just has other ideas.

They don't look modern to me. And they don't look like Champion to me. I obviously don't know enough about Alley to say they're not. I'm willing to take Ray's word unless Ron or Ric or someone like that disagrees. It would be cool to hear from them though. Here's the description from the auction, where Ray mentions the metallic spots, etc.

here's the auction pic for future reference since they're rather unusual:

Thanks Edna. ( :

That's pretty interesting isn't it. Chuck B suggests that people take that ad with a grain of salt. If I'm not mistaken that warning translates monetarily into something like this: Marbles with the wide black ribbon around the middle might command more money than an obvious all-red with a thin black line but not as much money as the obvious yellow-jackets with green or blue ribbons. And what about the ones with the white equator? Were those different in any way from the ones sold in All-Red bags?

Some call this a strip tease.

Thanks guys. I added a quick note. I'll try to make a better update later. I don't remember where I heard/read that they got the old stock.

Starting a repository for whatever bits and pieces I come across for marble production by the different companies. I keep thinking I "ought to" so here now I'm starting it. Maybe it will take order some day. Maybe not. Just one company today. Heaton is the one I was reading about just now. Heaton Agate Company. Started marble production in 1947. Sold the business to the Bogard family in 1971. They are said to have used only one machine at a time because of gas shortages but AMMM gives them credit for "millions and millions of marbles" over the life of the company. I guess it adds up! They had swirls, chinese checker marbles, transparents and cat's eyes. Some marbles went to industrial accounts but not that many. Bogard would later shift the emphasis more to industrial marbles/

You might have to set your preferences in order to get back to the notices you're used to. The pop up window and email notifications and the like.

Just starting to collect information. The 1900 census says he was born in April 1848 but gives his age as 42. So the 1848 looks like an error. Later censuses place his birth in the 1850's. Some variation. 1887, 1888?: Immigrated to the U.S. June 11, 1900: Living in Tiffin City, Ohio, per census. His occupation is given as glass blower but it looks like he might have been unemployed for the past 5 months if I'm reading the form correctly. 1903: General Manager of the Buckeye Glass Company factory in Malta, Ohio 1910: Worked at (was proprietor of?) a hotel in Cambridge, Ohio. 1917: Returned to the glass business, working for Akro 1919: laborer, no company name given (in Clarksburg, WV, I presume - mental note: confirm with Brian - lol I'm sure that was it but ....) 1921: Clerk, Akro Agate 1923: chemist , no company name given. Source: Thread from Land of Marbles. Find link again. Note: 20233 1920: Identified as chemist in census Sept. 1923: Left Akro, where he was employed as a Glass Maker, per the testimony of J. F. Early at the Peltier/Akro Apellate Trial in 1926. Additional: Early also stated in his testimony that he saw Fiedler at Peltier during their inspections (of the Miller machines) of May 1925 and April 1926. Sept. 15, 1924: Signed two-year contract to work at Peltier. Fiedler's home is given as Hamburg, New York at the time of the signing. Fiedler is to start on or about Oct. 15, 1924. He is hired as a Glass Maker and foreman with a special duty of bringing other Peltier workers up to speed on the art of hand gathering marbles and other spherical glass items. The contract appears to have been extended for one year. Fiedler's pay is a healthy $100 a month from 1924 - 1927, more even than than Sellers Peltier. His residence in Ottawa, Illinois is given in company records and Internal Revenue documents for 1926 and 1927. The $5200 salary recorded for 1927 suggests that he stayed through the end of the year. There was a payroll check canceled on March 31, 1928 but no indication of the date when the check was written. It is thought to be from 1927. Source: Private collection Late 1920's?: A 1987 article by Jeff Carskadden and Mark Randall tells of information found in the Degenhart Museum in Cambridge which says that Fiedler owned the Christensen Agate Company for some unknown length of time. The information was provided by Elliot Pattison who was said to have been Fiedler's chauffeur when he was 14 or 15 years old. He recalls receiving a gift of marbles from Fiedler when he was in the hospital with appendicitis. 1930: In Aurora, Illinois, per census. No employment stated. Death: ? Bibliography: 1. Jeff Carskadden and Mark Randall. "The Christensen Agate Company, Cambridge, Ohio, 1927-1933", Muskingum Annals, Number Four, pp. 48-52. Zanesville, OH: The Muskingum Valley Archaelogical Society, 1987. 2. J. W. Corter. Henry Hellmers' Secret Batch Book of Glass Formulae. Sandy, UT: Ignaeous Glassworks, 2011. I don't have this yet but some have made it sound like it could have useful information. 3. Ralph K. Lucht. Arnold Fiedler: Glass & Marble Maker Par Excellence. AuthorHouse: 2007. I have only incorporated a couple of small details from this book. I'm still considering how to best make use of it. Some of the material is still under debate but some looks like it could be helpful. Decisions are complicated by a lack of a bibliography.

I was so relieved when I scrolled up and saw which marbles Galen had posted. I didn't want to have to learn a new version of Pelt Sunset. But luckily I don't have to. That's the version I'm used to. 1931, Sunset Agates

Still working on how to do thumbnails.

This thread is about the "new book". The new book is in error. How much error is open for debate. It is your right and perhaps your cranky art historian responsibility to not believe Mike, Galen and myself about the nature of the Peltier documents. Do you believe the information presented in this new Fiedler book? Do you believe that Fiedler started the Cambridge Glass Company (1901) and named the Christensen Agate Company (circa January 1925)? You reported on the content of the book without having seen it. Now that you have seen it do you recommend it? What is your current evaluation of it now that you have read it?

There's a two-year contract saying Fiedler was to start work on or about Oct. 24, 1924 in the capacity of Glass Maker and foreman. One of his particular duties was to teach the men "the art of glass gathering". [Edit: yes, what Galen posted while I was editing this.] That contract was apparently extended since he was there another year with the same pay scale. There are IRS documents from 1926 and 1927 showing Fiedler's Ottawa address and his considerable pay. There are other detailed documents from 1925 through 1927 showing his pay as it related to production costs and as it compared to the pay of others in Peltier's employ. And of course there is the aforementioned check which was cancelled in March of 1928.

I don't know why anyone wouldn't want to buy your snake oil, Mike.

I've seen the documents too. They're quite comprehensive. Not that Mike needs anyone to vouch for his word about documents he is holding in hand. It's really an amazing treasure. It will be nice when they can be made available for all. Until then, I feel very fortunate to have been able to see them.

They were sold as Prize Names. (Prize Name Agate, not Prize Name Corkscrew) The original plan in 1930 appeared to be for children to rename them. (link) "Prize name" seemed to just be the temporary name on the box while the naming contest was being run. But the winning contest name was "Fire Opal" and it never replaced the "Prize Name" name on the boxes. Fire Opal went on to be the name of a different kind of marble. p.s., If you can read the little print you may note that the description says that there were five color combos. There were many more than that. ... obviously! lol. That's just an example of how Akro reused bits and pieces of ads without rewriting. Five specific combos were described in earlier ads but those don't match the color combos here. The variety quickly expanded.

Another issue with the timeline in addition to the claim that Fiedler started the Cambridge Glass Company (1901) is the conjecture that in 1903 he was making caster balls there using MFC technology. Even if he was employed at Cambridge Glass at the time, it seems highly unlikely that they would have been using the brand new MFC technology, which Martin Christensen appears to have first announced to the world in the summer of 1903. Cambridge was a pressed glass company. The items in their 1903 catalog apparently came from their parent company's earlier line, so it seems to me that those were probably bullet mold casters. We know someone made the bullet mold casters. Looks like Cambridge might have been one of the manufacturers. An article on the history of the Cambridge company (link) supports the idea that they would have been using molds in the early years. So I don't think their furniture casters were likely the instrument of Fiedler's debut into machine made marble making. Lots of interesting info about glass making in Ohio at the turn of the century, but I question Fiedler being involved with Cambridge that early.

Yay, you made it! Thanks for sticking it out. Worth the effort. ( :

From Photobucket did you try to copy the code which says img on one end and /img on the other (with brackets around the img)? That's how I load things from Photobucket. I either type the img code myself or I copy that line from the Photobucket options. Edit: Nevermind, I see you figured it out. (alright!)

Anything machine made. Would love to see!

Yay! Thanks! Keep 'em coming!

Some stories are more credible than others. Some have more corroboration. People have a natural impulse to evaluate the credibility of the information they are hearing. Where there is secrecy warning flags go up; it's instinctual. People probe more. Now that many have read the book there is less of a feeling of secrecy but there are also more specifics to judge the book on, and it's natural for people to want to give feedback. I have a growing list of questions. If Fiedler was working at Peltier in 1925 to 1927 as indicated by Peltier records, would he have been at the Christensen company in time to name it? That's one of the things said in the book - that Fiedler named the Christensen Agate Co. There are other smaller errors. Like Peltier being in Indiana. It's an interesting book. I'm glad I got it. Even if it is a compilation of stories which some others are familiar with, I wasn't familiar with them. So I'm glad I got it. But that doesn't mean I don't have questions. I even ordered a copy of Greenberg's guide to marbles so I could read more about the Eagle Sulphides Fiedler was reported to have made. My interest has been seriously piqued.