Steph

Neat. If I had that in hand I'd be checking to see if it might be a double ingot.

Why Black Panther? Is it named after the comic book character?

I guess this is the NLR type you're thinking of? (But I've seen more than one person call it a Black Panther, and this has me confused.) From a marblealan auction, posted in another thread:

Since that is indeed a Rainbo and since NLR names don't tend to generalize ....... no?

Are opals as pretty in hand as they look in pix?

Any connection to something like this? http://fineart.ha.com/common/view_item.php?Sale_No=6036&Lot_No=53177

I wonder if you have partially answered the question yourself. Did they start with a clear rod for the center and wrap the ribbon around it? Fascinating marble.

Is sodium polyacrilate a mineral?

From what century?

The mod from Canada? LOL. If you're going to call someone out, at least learn their name! rofl

Looks like a conqueror to me.

oh no!!!!!!!

interesting idea

Hope you're having a blast!

One of the ads with 'red'. Maybe from 1912. Mentions six colors though says five. They tried to squeeze a lot in. (click to enlarge) Just noticed it says Dept. D where yours says Dept. B. Whatever that might mean.

Thanks for the advice! (And thanks for your extensive help on this one, John.)

yes. lol. Makes sense. I'm not going to go on a campaign to get people to stop calling them gutta percha. It's just interesting to learn more about them whatever they're called.

Wow. What a treasure. ... and Lineol is another new word for me.

Wowza!

Yeah, I got the impression that Elastolin was associated specifically with toy soldiers. But didn't want to pull it out of consideration unless I was sure. The lab guys were asked about whether the material could be "sawdust, a glue such as casein, and clay (kaolin)" (the description of Elastolin from Wikipedia) and they said that would be in line with what their read-outs were saying. I got back in touch with Snyd. He is sure that no polymer at all is present. A clay base in the rosin to hold the wood and fiber together is still a possibility. Not all old materials are identified with present day equipment. He gave me a nice lesson on what rosin would have meant in the old days. It could be made in different ways. Locals would use what was easy to get and workable, and probably not edible as food was scarce and valuable and not for use in making toys. So pinning down the material might require knowing where the ball was made and what local trees and clays there were.

We recently discussed some marbles which looked like this. This one was put into boiling water which softened it so that pieces could be pinched off. The pieces were sent in for laboratory tests. The conclusion about this one, if I understand correctly, is that it is not a polymer material. Rather, it is a cellulose material with wood and some rosin. That would mean it is not gutta-percha since gutta-percha is a latex, which is a polymer emulsion. (Again if I understand correctly.) The question now is, do you have any ideas what the name of the material might have been? Or any names at all for any old materials which you even suspect might be related. For example, the name Elastolin has been suggested. Any others? I'm not clear on whether this mib has any clay in it. Need to double check. Maybe Snyd will weigh in. A few wiki links for perusal: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutta-percha http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latex http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elastolin

If I had them in hand, I would try to get a grip (lol) on the structure of the swirl. In the 2nd pic, the 1st marble looks like it might be showing a vacor-like cutline. Maybe I'm imagining it, or maybe CAC's could have that kind of cut too. But those are the features I'd be focusing on for now.

Nifty!

What do the others it came with look like? I think the first could be Vacor also. Some Vacors Albert posted at LOM:

Not old? Approximately how new do you have in mind? I would have guessed relatively old even if it did turn out to be from China.