Steph

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.

First picture, top left, probably has a name. But it's one I wouldn't want to try to give. Reddish ribbons on whitish bases shouldn't be too intimidating, but there seem to be quite a few pelt names for mibs with that general description.

I'd like our current glass artists to try to replicate those. ... just to figure out how it could have been done ..... But then that would mess with the market. So maybe it's best for it to remain a mystery.

That half red / half blue fingers-type cat is different. (lol - don't mean to just focus on your cats. Thanks for all the eye candy! )

Wow!!! What a beaut! Awesome movement in the ribbons.

Hi glas. Thanks for putting your 2 bits in! ( :

This is what I came up with awhile back. Quoting straight from an old post. (Jill is the Jill Spencer, the Marble Queen.) The copperhead name seems to have stuck on a marble with purple in it. Here's one from Alan's site and a pair from Jill's. Jill says they have a band of transparent copper glass but it's usually missing. And if it's present it's going to be fractured. They couldn't be marketed because they couldn't take a hit.

Another option is sending them to Marblealan if he's still taking new consignments. Then you don't have to worry about pix or grading or nuthin'. But since you asked ... I used to grade super safe. Few of my marbles made it to mint when I listed them. But then I got feedback from a respected buyer and learned that what I was calling NM+ he called "wet mint with a couple of subsurface sparkles". I got a little more feedback from a couple of other people who thought the marbles they received were mint. So I felt okay to upgrade a little. Then I ran out of marbles to sell.

Very interesting! $28 per lot. $4000 + the joy of frustrating the marble community. (They've made it pretty clear from board posts and some of their item descriptions that that's part of their motivation.) Now let's factor in the cost of materials and the price of ethics.

Pretty sharp. Is it wood?

Wow. Gorgeous effect.

Happy Birthday Windy!

Yep, probably the same one. I'm 100% confident they make their own fancies. I think they might average about a buck apiece on them in the auctions. Not making a fortune, but if they have the kilns handy, maybe they find those few bucks good supplemental income. Reason I wondered about these was the lack of more obvious globs, plus the fact that back in 2007 when they first came to my attention they used to mix up new ones and old ones in their lots. So, since these browns look a little better than usual, I wondered if the seller might have been using real brown ones to help the fake chinas seem more legit.

That type has been dug at the Sistersville Alley site. Question is how they got there? Were they cullet from somewhere else? Did Alley even have patch making machines? Last I heard, that was in doubt. From Sistersville, Ron's photo:

Last year I would have said Alley. But now it's in question whether Alley made patches. How close is the gold part of the glass to that in your avatar?