Steph

Cool pix all around, Randy. Mesh bag, dated board, instructions. All cool. (even the wahoo - that's a fun memory) I take it the Gotham board is the only one with a date? BJ - don't know what to say! How old was Young?

Bump with a litte update. Nothing definitive yet but I ran across a little more corroboration for the mid-to-late 30's rather than the late 20's as the date of intro of Chinese Checkers. A 1938 Popular Science article calling it a "new game" - September 38 issue

I share your surprise, Greg. Henry Watson was an art collector who also had a marble collection. His was on display in a Florida museum. Don't know if it is anymore. He had marbles articles in the American Collector magazine in 1942 and 1943. ooh. I now see that Watson identified the figure marbles as having a "sulphide center" in both of those articles. Maybe he was responsible for why we call them sulphides. FWIW! LOL. Sorry to fixate on that. I've been wondering about that name 'sulphide' for a looong time. Berry Pink supposedly had a nice marble collection. Need to look up the date on when he was publicizing that. Wonder what happened to his!

I thought this first picture was wonderful! The 2nd is a bonus. They're from a 1941 Hobbies magazine. The November issue has 3 marble collecting articles in it. Joe Street sent me a nice copy of the three articles (and he'd gladly send a copy to you). The text can be found at his site: Marble Articles Home Page p.s. this might be from before figure marbles started being called "sulphides". Still looking for earliest uses of that name! p.p.s. this might be the earliest use I've seen of the name "Bennington".

Ah, thanks. I guessed wrong. Again.

Very pretty. Who made?

I'd like to collect closets. But I don't know where I'd put them.

if you were asking me to join your mafia, I'd be in! LOL um, well, I'm easing off on Mafia Wars for awhile. It'll be cool to have marble posts on my wall for a change. Might give my other friends a clue about what I see in mibs!

kool. thanks for the illus.

Let's clean our eyes out with some good guineas. Greg posted these recently:

Talking about one color on top of the other, check out this zoom. Is that a piece of frit with the blue fused to the white before it even hit the marble?

whoever made the mib in question, I lost my part of the pot. I emailed Mark. He says it is not his.

That's fantastic!

Bump as a reminder. I was sent a list of Tinsley Green winners. I postponed posting it to finish another project. MUST NOT FORGET THIS.

Thanks Al. Heatons in an advertising bag are new to me. It would be almost as cool to find a cross-thru St. Marys cat in a bag as it would be to find a buttermilk. Almost! Hehe Ron. Maybe I dreamed it.

It's hard to separate the seller from the marble, knowing what I do about his past sales. However, I think I would suspect that this particular example was a Mark Christensen even if I didn't know the seller was Pavcraz. Here's my contribution to the discussion. A pic of the marble in question, and one of Mark's for comparison:

In case I was being too subtle, I think this one Pavcraz was selling could very well have been signed, but it could be NM+ from where the tiny signature was buffed off. The marble is the right size for Mark Christensen's and the seller is known from the past to buy Mark Christensen marbles and present them as antique. Of course he has also sold Fisher marbles in "vintage" lots so maybe, but this one looks like Mark C's recent offerings to me. Are Kelly Schmidt marbles still available? Pavcraz does a pretty quick turn around business. Buys dug Akros one week and has them in his forged packaging the next. Not saying he wouldn't use older contemps if he could get his hands on them, but just thinking of availability. Next question: who makes guineas? http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130350655669

Um, yeah, my money is on Mark Christensen: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120495552125 Mark's marbles are signed now but Pavcraz's offering was NM+. Coincidence?

My main question is who made it. I know Pavcraz buys contemps. Question is from where. For example, he's salted his lots with Mark Christensens and implied they were vintage Christensens. It might be educational simply to list who makes somewhat vintage-looking "striped opaques" and "guineas" and such these days. And maybe show examples of their craftsmanship. Could even be fun in its own right if we didn't have to think of Pav&@#! while we were doing it. While I was thinking of it I googled it and here's a link to some Mark C's: Mark has a site, but his "Tribute" marbles are out of stock right now. http://www.mcmarbles.com/

Motion carried by acclamation. But I still need a pic of Ron in a fedora. :-)

Green snowflakes!

Man, there are times when I seriously wish I had Photoshop. This is one of those moments. Raiders of the Lost Mibs! Can you see it?

Might relocate this thread to the Study Hall but figured I could start it here in case there was wider interest. Anyone have any cool storebrand marble packaging? The kind which might fly under the radar because it doesn't have a marble company name on it? Been specially thinking of the Woolworth packaging containing Cairo Novelties but anything would be interesting to me. Thanks!

Have a good one. Where do you fish in December?

Here are some American-made stone marbles. From the California Onyx Co., AKA the California Agate Co. (click to enlarge) That's one of the pix Doug Mitchell sent me. He's the grandson of the company founder, George Douglas Mitchell, shown in the photo.