Steph

By the by, does anyone here remember Mr. Bennett's claim to fame outside the field of marble collecting?

Good idea. Bennett Reproduction Comics on Modern Marble King Rainbows vs. Original Picture Marbles on Peltier Peerless Patches Here are the pix from the recent thread discussing them. The first to show the two patches on the 1990's reproductions. The 2nd to show that the new images differ in varying degrees from the originals.

Green Glass Sulphide, 1.25" Made by Norbert Geitner of Lauscha, Germany. Here is a more ambitious attempt for marbles in this general category (the intentional repros): Mostly Pix - " Fakes ", Reproductions, Fantasy, Etc.

I wished I had a marble to add . . . and guess what! Now I do! Thanks Carole and Lou!

Sweet ! ! ! It's gorgeous! Thanks ! ! !

Hansel was not following the threads until I gave him a heads up yesterday. He asked me to post the rest of the story. Here is his note (with me clarifying one pronoun). Thanks. I told him [Craig] these particular sulphides were made by Norbert Geitner of Lauscha at my request, to prove that miniature coin sulphides, which, at the time, another German ebayer was then selling as antique, were indeed new. Other than the coins, Norbert had his choice of size, design and color. At the time I had several of these new sulphides listed on eBay as new, and Norbert listed some himself, also as new. They sold for less than my costs, so I quit buying them. There was no agreement to buy any particular number of marbles from Norbert; neither did he have any constraints as to where or to whom he could sell them. He was not the first nor the last to make modern sulphides in Germany, and I was not his last customer. Of note, that green eagle sulphide recently sold on eBay was not listed as being old; I wonder if Craig's was. One can't deny it's better to have repros sold as such; unfortunately it may be impossible to educate collectors who have more $$$ than sense, me included. Hansel

Your link ended up with an extra "http" in it. This oughta work: http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/the2cees

Oh hey, I just noticed! Dustin's hot! Looks like he's in the running for the $500 scholarship also.

Thanks for Mike's version. The Lawrence Brown part is close to what was said in post #3 of this thread, Marble Bag... Brown Manufacturing Co.. That exact wording has shown up in more than one location so I don't know who originated it. There's a key difference between your Mike Johnson report and the wording in the Brown Mfg Co. thread: So that's different from actually coming up with his version of the game in 1935. On the other hand, Friedel had his game for sale in 1935. What we have so far is three American men being given credit for establishing Chinese Checkers in America: Pressman, Brown, Friedel. The stories about Friedel were written in 1936, the stories about the others some time later. The gist of my opinion about the Pressman and Brown versions is that they were embellished as part of a tribute to the men at the end of their careers. Much like how in their later years Berry Pink, Art Fisher and Clinton Israel were each given credit for having invented the marble machine.

ebay auction Wow. $6100. Very interesting to hear the background. Thanks Craig.

Okay . . . not so early? Still not clear on the date. Here's the thread at Marble Mental where I asked about them before. Is there a story to these? .

Hi George! Great to see you! I think that's only two staples, plus one staple length line printed on the header. ? I need to look it up but I remember another discussion somewhere about this bag being an early counterfeiting effort. With Anacortes mibs as Paula noted.

*hehe* Neat observations Paula. I saw those tongs yesterday. My thought was an LOL and a bit of applause at the enterprising inventor who may have been hoping to ride the wave of Chinese Checkers popularity by creating a perception of a need for this accessory! Thanks for the info about the various items used as "men" in games. I think you're right about the buttons, by the way. Not only does it make good sense! but I'm pretty sure I've read about it in ordinary people's literature - as opposed to ads.

Wow - here's the link to the obituary for Jack Pressman's widow, Lynn. Elizabeth found it and posted it at MM. Lynn Pressman Raymond, Toy Executive, Dies at 97 Here's the portion pertaining to marbles: It reinforces the 1928 date but makes it even more likely to be a "typo" which got perpetuated for whatever reason. If it had said that he spotted the game on a sales trip to Europe, that might have given the 1928 date some credibility. But on a sales trip to Colorado? Means the game was already developed, and available in the U.S. (sorry to restate the obvious, but it seems key!) So that would fit into the late 1930's arc of ads and "hot new game" announcements I've been tracking.

Historical fantasy bag. It's at least worth the opening bid (imho). Wonder how high it will go!

List updated! Thanks all! edit: ooops, I said Jim Cooprider. Which is he more known by? Jim or James?

The Morphy auction is the link under the pic I posted: http://www.icollector.com/Morphy-Auctions-August-Sale_as14553?p=4

LOL! That's super cool and I am not disappointed at all! It certainly adds a new dimension to the question! Who turned the game into a marble game instead of "checker" game? (and did the change take place in the Halma stage, the Stern-Halma stage or the Chinese Checkers stage?) Maybe that was THE version Friedel sold or only ONE version. who knows? it will be interesting finding out! . . wonder if I overlooked any clues in what I've already read.

Pressman's version - Hop Ching - was mentioned in society page reports starting at least by August 1938, which would indicate some amount of fame. But it's sort of interesting that Burnstine advertised a Chinese Checkers game in the June 1938 edition of Playthings while Pressman did not mention the game. Was it just not that important to Pressman at the time? Or was there some other reason not to advertise the game which was such a boon to their business? such as they only started their Hop Ching push after that Playthings went to print? Whatever the reason, Burnstine featured the game while Pressman's ad was more along the lines of "we are here". Here are some Hop Ching ads from Aug. and Sept. 1938. (click to enlarge) . . . .

Yeah, I would have seen that site sometime, if not yesterday. It was linked in this thread about Lawrence Brown's version of the game. Marble Bag... Brown Manufacturing Co. The story told about Brown there makes it seems as if he was the only maker from 1937 to 1943. We know that's not true. I think it's sorta like how during the twilight years of their careers, various marble company presidents were given credit for having mechanized marble making. The Chinese Checkers game was huge. It's sorta natural that stories might be embellished about its development and promotion. Well here's an ad for Brown's version, Chinker Chek. Here's the Pressman version, Hop Ching. Ooops, lol. I didn't prep one of those yet. It's not as if I'm anti-Pressman. Really I'm not! Pressman sold marbles. They helped Alley become and/or stay a major player. I gotta like 'em. Just trying to get the Chinese Checkers story straight. :-) Here are some others I did prep. (click to enlarge) Another Friedel: A local color pic: (by the way, parties where Chinese Checkers in its various incarnations were played made the society pages quite a bit. :-) A lithographed version involving some quantity of steel. (there's been some question about when steel versions were produced.) Another name variant while I'm in the neighborhood. One more. Burnstine's Hop Chek. one one more, the earliest ad I've seen so far. Sorta boring as far as the Chinese Checkers ref. But cute ad for the Fortune game. lol

The JC's I know of are Jerry Capel, Jason Compagni and Joe Crisanti. I don't know their styles. The names came from the list I was given at GA. The GA discussion of this particular marble turned out kinda cool - giving a good feel for why the signature might not be enough to make the ID.

I'm not sure if that's one I saw but I saw something like that. Lots of sites quoting same source(s).

fwiw, the question I saw wasn't why were there so many bidders. It was why were there so many bids. There was something suspicious in the bids. There appear to have been 5 people or fewer bidding on the two auctions. That is, there were 5 distinct ebay accounts involved. One of the bidders placed almost 100 bids total, pushing the bids up, up, up. That CAN be an innocent bidder uncertain of how high they want to go and doing it in increments. However, it's still disconcerting.

1.423 (again! LOL)

Neat. I don't have a date on it either. It might be the less than or equal to 1948 version mentioned here. Funny that they don't mention "Ching Ling" though. Wonder where they get the 1948 date from. Maybe that's when Kayson's Novelty Co. ceased to exist under that name. Here's a press release and ad from what appears to be Friedel's early push for recognition. By the way, do you know what you'd be playing if you were playing "Chinese Checkers" in 1923? . . . . Mah Jongg.