Steph

Thanks for the help with Superiors. Next on the checklist is Aquamarines. What is their range of variation? I think of their "textbook" description as this which Smitty posted about them at Marble Mental. Smitty's wife is the one who named the Aquamarines. Here's Bob B's famous Aquamarine photo, as seen in Chuck B's Tri-Lites article, OLDER VITRO MARBLES (TRI-LITES). This photo has been presented as quintessential Aquamarines. Lately though I've seen some mibs being called Aquamarines which seem quite a bit different. So I was wondering how far other collectors feel comfortable taking the name.

Here's a box from one of Marblealan's auctions. Popeye marbles are named after the box. They're not the only marble style which was sold in the Popeye boxes. They're in the boxes a lot though and won the name. Their real name to Akro back in the 30's was Tri-Onyx Agates. (click pix to enlarge) p.s., here's a close-up of two marbles from that box. One is a true popeye patch - a marble which was meant to be a cork but didn't get spun. (click to enlarge)

I'll trade you a Wisconsin beach.

http://marbles.yuku.com/

That's why I asked! Superiors SEEM like they should be easier, but they've been sort of slippery!

I need to learn more about Vitro Superiors. They don't seem like they should be too hard but I'm kinda cautious with Vitro names for some reason. Here's the "textbook" photo, where the "textbook" is Chuck B.'s article in the WVMCC newsletter about older Vitros. The article is now hosted at Joemarbles.com: OLDER VITRO MARBLES (TRI-LITES) Would love to see more pix of Superiors to get a better feel for how much they can vary. Thanks! (Would also like to see the range of variation of the other styles mentioned in that article, but will wait for another thread for that.)

Check this out at Google Books. 1920's and 1930's Akro promos in Boys' Life magazine. I'd seen a few of them before but nowhere near this many. I have a lot of reading to do! Lots of notes to take! Tri-colors were touted as a new line in January 1931, for instance. (Earlier than I once thought.) I'm in heaven. Hope everyone else has as good a day/weekend as I'm going to. About 30 issues A coupla notes: Mr. Akro Talks About Marbles - booklet advertised in Feb. '29. Not sure I've seen that booklet, at least not with that cover. The Prize Name contest winners WERE announced. Supposed to have been published in June 1930 - that's what contest announcements had said. I have the June 1930 Boys' Life. Not there. The August issue explains why and gives the winners. The winning name was Fire Opal.

Corky is nice.

Red Sparklers: The New Adventures of Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford, by George Randolph Chester, in Cosmopolitan, 1914 Appears they cost a nickel apiece at the store.

Woohoo, best spotted dick photo I've ever seen. Hands down!

Maybe in this thread , , , maybe not. . . *she smiles archly* I bet there are a lot of people who would like to get a chance to bid on this but who might be afraid to tip their hand and show their interest too soon.

And Sue's goodie posted in another thread today ...

I'm sure going to have a hard time calling a small marble a parrot. I think I'll be late in adopting that, if I ever do. If the goal was 1" then how could a 5/8" marble be a contender? It takes a different machine to make a 5/8" marble, right? I've been hesitant over the parakeet name for a long time because I'd heard it used for different things - like the tiger eyes - and I was waiting for that name to kinda settle down in my mind. Now, thanks to this thread, I think I do understand it. And right now I like it better than parrot for the smaller marbles. I mean, if the goal was for the parrots to be big . . . then that should get the name . . . seems like. . I only have the one parrot, but half the excitement of getting that one was measuring it and seeing that it passed muster in the size department. lol So, that's my "for what it's worth" from a parrot novice. But it's where I'm at right now. I think I need a dancing banana!

*giggle*

I'm with the others. Kinda in shock, and waiting to see what the big CAC guns think. Here's a small box I asked about awhile back, also with Chrissies in it. It's the same stained glass pattern. Not my box! It was in a Morphy auction. Here's the thread where I asked. It has some discussion about the use of stained glass boxes in the late 20's, early 30's. Colorful Jobber Boxes

I won't be hanging out my shingle as an appraiser any time soon. ;-)

Not every marble has a name. But people want names. That's another cause of imaginative names. There's an appetite for them. I'll go ahead and add my best guess for what your marble is. My best guess is that it is a marble which Vitro would have called a Tri-Lite in the 1930's. And then some collectors in the 2000's would have called it an Elite, "Elite" being a name for particularly colorful Tri-Lites. That's my guess. If I'm wrong, I'll live. Pen, my understanding is that Parrots are a white-based marble and the goal of the creators was to cover the white as much as possible. Sometimes white shows through, sometimes not. The colors used to cover the white are sometimes transparent. My parrot knowledge is mostly theoretical though. I only own one of them. I'll step aside now and let people who have more speak up. One more thing before I fade, it would be good to remember that not every white-based 4-color Vitro shooter is a parrot, even in the 1" range. *entering watch mode* -s

What might have happened is that perhaps the seller posted this marble or a similar one here for ID. If one board member said "parakeet", and another said "Vitro elite", the seller may have combined the names in his ID. He might even have posted it on more than one board and might have combined the input from the various sites. I think many interesting ebay names might arise from that type of board exchange. Once we've given our opinions on it, the seller of the marble has to make his best judgement of how to list it.

I appreciated Edna's answer in that other thread and would like it if she would reconstruct it here. In a compact way it refers to different conventions and traditions which have been in use by collectors. Here are those quotes from Ron:

Speak your piece and show your treasures!

Thank you Scott. That's terrific. Any help in this area is MUCH appreciated. I have one box waiting to uploaded still, one Craig posted elsewhere and okayed for here. But that might be it for me for who knows how long.

Kevin was welcomed at this board when no other board would put up with him. He posted abusively. Loudly. With foul language. He violated board etiquette. Not just "edgy". He violated explicit warnings. He repeatedly posted things he was told not to. He had to be put on "post approval", which means that a moderator had to read what he wrote and approve it before it showed up for everyone else. This hurt his feelings. He swore that this board was going to go down in flames and he started his own board. So yeah, it's a different site, and a different side. edit: That was the "long story short" version. He was actually put on "post approval" twice and suspended once. When he was suspended he used a fake IP address to reregister with a new name. We figured that out fast but Lou let him stay anyway. Lou and Sue were amazingingly patient with him but that's not the story you will hear from him. So, yes, it's a different side.

Bumping it for you and opening it up to the main chat. :-)

Here are some more pix from Nancy. The turquoise and gold make nice accents. And one of those looks like it has a lot of clear. I still love the snowy white ones. Nice assortment all around. (click to enlarge)