Steph

He has a Yahoo group called the Marble Collector's Club. I don't know if it is active. I've seen a few interesting things in his photo albums but have never tried to post there.

Trivia: Herbie was Smitty's kid brother. One day I went through and found the story behind all the comic character marbles.

That's not photoshop! I can see how someone could think it is, but these marbles are for real. Check out this website. It'll blow you away. http://www.glasskitchen.com/

Truly amazing work. From conception to execution. I couldn't draw it on paper. Forget about making it happen in glass. You rock.

White Pelts! oh yeah! Makes sense. I still know relatively little about slags so that's a FWIW sentiment but the double compartment bag which I posted in a couple of threads yesterday has feathered slags and it seems to be from a post-Gropper time. Berry Pink filed for the patent on that bag in 1931. He was working for Rosenthal at the time. (I'll try to make this be the last time I post this bag this week. ;-)

Thank you for the marble mail. You know who you are. I don't know if you want your name mentioned so I'll leave that up to you! But thanks! I thought it was going to be one certain marble, which was already awesome. This assortment is going to be fun to go through. Brightened my day. THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

Good info. Thanks Galen!

mmmmmmm sausage ....

One thing which has stopped me from presenting the info I have found about the use of the oxblood name in the 1800's is that most of it is interlaced in fairly technical material. People's eyes would glaze over. (pun acknowledged if not intended) But there really is a lot of material on copper-based oxblood from the 19th and early 20th century. If you are interested, a lot can be found on Google. Be open for variations in spelling, and for versions of the name as given in other languages. Here's a cool passage from a 1918 article: The way I read it in many places, oxblood is a color AND it has a special and long known association with glazes obtained by the use of copper.

It's not what I would label oxblood. :-) But you knew that, right? Were you heading some direction with this? (I hope that didn't sound antagonistic. Not meant that way. Pardon me for getting turned around. :-)

Oxblood incident. haha. You're a cute one. Are the red ribbons transparent/translucent on those?

Re: #3. I will NOT say "true oxblood" again - unless I'm talking about the blood of an ox! :-)

Perfect wave! wow, the geometry of the glass makes the water look so real and splashy.

Gorgeous examples, Alan! Most excellent.

You talking to me?

Yeah, that one's taken. was just thinkin' along those lines. Obviously, it would take more than me coming up with the name. Just thinkin . . . . Oh Mike, please let me off the hook on the turquoise <--> ox thingy. It just happened so much more in turquoise than in other colors (iiuc) but not enough to seem intentional (to me). Oh my head. I'm happy with what all I said over at LOM. If it wasn't compelling enough, I guess that's that. Some distance from the subject would be good for me now.

Interesting thoughts, Pop. As you know, I shot my wad on that one at LOM in the last coupla days. The alternative would surprise me but obviously I don't know. Now I'm trying to think of a good name for Akro's and MFC's oxblood. Any suggestions? I'm toying with something like Think it could catch on?

I backed off calling Akro's oxblood "true Oxblood". Now I think "traditional" is a better word. I said that I do not know when it came to be tagged with the name oxblood. I don't know how old the "tradition" is. Yet, I think that is a fair word for it. I stand by MFC and Akro's version being a special version of glass with the oxblood color, worthy of its own name. Oxblood is a color. But MFC's American Cornelian glass is a special version of glass with that color.

I currently own a number of books which I never put into my bibliography. Yes, it is. Or at least it was. Hmmmm, is that a trick reference? "glass world"? You might be able to make yourself correct by specially defining that term. I simply know that oxblood has long been used to describe a copper-based glass formula.

It's more than the color. It's a certain look that comes with the opaqueness of the copper version. There isn't that much marble literature. Marbles were just toys. Not big enterprise. I have found documents from throughout the 1800's which mention copper-based oxblood but not in connection with marbles. That's where I got the idea that for glazes the ideal version of oxblood was probably NOT opaque. There is a special glass in MFC's American Cornelian marbles. Somehow the tradition developed within the marble world to call it oxblood. I don't know who started it or when. I totally appreciate the fact that this is a specialized use of the term oxblood. But it's pretty special glass. If we wanna tweak the word oxblood to allow any glass of oxblood color under the umbrella, then a new word or phrase will be found to describe American Cornelian glass. It's just that special. It stands apart. OMG, I'm arguing with Lou! eeeek! (actually, this is fun. ROFL. Thanks for playing with me Lou!)

I don't think it can only be made from the formula. I think the copper-based oxblood which Akro and MFC used can come about under the right conditions even without a formula. I think it happened in Pelts and Marble Kings even. I am however trying to help hold the line that "true oxblood" for most marble collectors is the opaque, copper-based version. Perhaps "traditional" would be a better word to use.

Saving at least one pic from the auction, in case anyone wants to follow the discussion after the link is expired:

Beautiful story, Snyd. How wonderful.