Steph

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It seems to be so ... that Albright distributed CAC's. I'm still not clear on how, when and why. and, yeah, no 'w' on Rainbos. Those would be the Pelts in the next item down. Galen said the ad was from 1933. Someone else pegged it as Butler Bros. if I remember correctly. guess I should dbl check. [Edit: I think it was from G. Sommers & Co, of St. Paul] Every time I look at this ad freshly I find something new to me. Check out the reference to '"professional" glass onyx marbles' at the top. With 'snappy colors' in the 'fancy resale' Favorites box. The way "Professional" is used supports Charles' explanation in the Albright / Cac's @ Morphy's thread, i.e., that "Professional" was part of the sales pitch ultimately to impress the kids. 74 cents per dozen boxes, 16 marbles per pox = 192 mibs for 74 cents = about 2.6 mibs per penny wholesale. And in big bulk bag, as opposed to the fancy Favorites box, the 2-color mibs were 5 per penny wholesale. Those could easily be the same mibs I think. That difference in prices could be accounted for by bulk and lack of special packaging. Brian said those were not hand gathered prices, but this is 1933. Christensen was out of business yet Butler Bros. [edit: Sommers & Co.] is still offering Christensen boxes, and saying the contents have 'snappy colors'. So is it possible that was Depression era clearance sale prices for Christensens? Seems like it could go either way, gob fed mibs from the new swirl makers Ravenswood or Alley, yet with the 'Favorites' connection still a possibility of fire sale CAC's. final reflection (for now ;-) ... Onyx doesn't seem to equate to slags here. The ad writer used 'onyx' freely, even "multicolored" onyx over in the Berry Pink / Rosenthal double compartment bag. (click to enlarge)

cool! Dustin is #116 right now. So if the contest ended today, Dustin would have a 1 in 150 chance of winning the $1000 scholarship. So all we gotta do is keep him in the top 150 for his chance. The odds could be worse! And if he ended up in the top 150 of the "most viral" category, he would have a 1 in 150 chance at a $500 scholarship. go Dustin!

A lot of interesting ones. That unknown foreigner is a standout, Paula. Here a shot I took once of some commons with different colors included especially in the hope that the mixture would help me capture the pretty blues. I wanted to trick my camera into not "balancing" the blue right out of it. Asia has done turquoise nicely.

LOL! I'm dying to see one of the big ones ! !!! I hope it does work! Glad Zigafoose seems willing! (but his Dad's story IS STILL awesome even without pix! !!) That group photo in post #11 has been a source of confusion in the past. I'm with David in his concern about bibliographic echo. The photo needs to be addressed clearly, without hedging, or the confusion will be perpetuated. What I think I am hearing is that the only two marbles there which have a chance of being Vitro confettis are the two smaller ones on the right. But a chance doesn't mean a guarantee. The moonie-based one does appear to be a confetti. The clear-based one is in question. What was the range of variation of these? I hope no one takes offense at this being questioned. The known mistakes in the labeling make it clear there have been some assumptions made without provenance. Is there provenance on the small turquoise one? That is my personal question. known Vitros vs. ? (click to enlarge)

That's pretty cool. awesome actually that you make it to all those sites. I was kinda hopin' it was the other way around tho' -- wanted to see the brushed patches coming from akro. :-)

Quick cross reference ... about both Albright and a clay company other than Albright. " Boys' Marbles Made By Girls "

Oh that was me. I made it. Forgot to sign it. If you send it here, I'll fix that and get it back to you sometime in the next 90 yrs. no problem. of course I'll cover the shipping too since it was my bad. :-)

awesome pic! LOL I set it as my homepage to remind me to vote. My old homepage was a news site. This will be much more fun.

whether vacor or chinese or vitro, I'd want to know size. Also I'd definitely want to see them on a white background so that I could have a handle on what the base glass looks like. I also imagine people would like to know how you came by them before they'd want to declare Vitro, since confettis were never released for sale and there are so very few. I suggest this as a matter of straight marble ID protocol, not because I feel I am qualified to decide whether you are holding an ultra rare vitro confetti. Having said that, I'll leave further comments to others.

Were the 6 found at a Master site?

Thanks David. Andrea, I'm sure Patry wants you to smile when you think of her. :-) Zigafoose, any chance we could see that marble of your Dad's? Well, anyway, that's awesome !

Another gem. Knikkerbakker is such a cool word. Kinderknikkeren means kids who play marbles, or at least I think so. And don't forget Cees' site: Knikkerwereld Now I wonder if Knicks fans know their team is named after marble makers.

One logo mib, two clearies, two brushed patcches, one game marble and one oxblood? um, I'm afraid I'm gonna have trubble picking one as not belonging, and one as there to throw us off.

No way .... I was in heaven just reading that glossary, and now this. wowwwwww

Hot dang! Oh that's fabulous!

quick note on more stuff to work in: Vitro confetti (about 1984, and then around 1990?) Cosmic Rainbow (mid-to-late 1980's?) quick cross reference to old list of links for Vitro: Links: Vitro Agate

Here's an article quoted from the Land of Marbles Newsletter. David, is there anything you would add to this or correct? I'll see what pix I can find and post 'em if no one beats me to the punch. Hope someone beats me to the punch! (p.s., I mentioned David because I know he has seen the confettis in person. But anyone else sure is welcome to comment. I know others have seen 'em too!) one pic of the "moonie-based" ones. I believe this was from when Pete had some for sale at LOM: Here is Patry's picture. This is like the set shown in American Machine-Made Marbles. And here is a nice selection Patry scanned from the Vitro book: (click to enlarge)

I don't remember where to find that "most reliable" account. But here's something I summarized from it once and asked for confirmation about: The large ones were on a clear base, and maybe had more than one color frit, but we're talking SOOOOOO rare. edit: found the account. It's long plus I don't want to lose it again, so I posted it in a separate thread. I know David has seen the mibs up close in person, so I've asked him to comment. but anyone is welcome of course! I know he's not the only one who's seen at least some of 'em.

Gary be very very very careful. There has been much confusion between the Vitro and the Vacor ones. There have been Vacor pix posted as Vitros by people who were thought to know, and this has added to the confusion. I'm trying to remember where the most reliable info about these is stashed. One thing to realize is that that on most of the vitro mibs there was only 1 color of frit used. (if I understand correctly) I think we're talking less than 500 mibs total. Maybe less than 300 mibs total. Many of those had a white base. Do you have the American Machine-Made Marbles book? If so, check on p. 165 for a pic.

I think Chinese companies make them also.

Yes, great interviews! Not to mention visual feasts. Ironically the one with Alan goes to show how TERRIBLY DIFFICULT the subject of marbles can be. The marble which is listed as a 1930's comet looks like a modern Vacor clownfish to me. But I know that there are Master collectors and Akro collectors both who have claimed that their favorite company made it. tricky stuff , and oh so fun

I have some indication that marbles for codd bottles were made in Australia. Still working on confirming that. The problem with confirmation is that it might be that in fact such marbles weren't made in Australia. I've seen discussions out of Australia about how they weren't able to compete with glass balls from China. They were government level discussions. So maybe they hoped to make the glass balls but never did. dunno yet. Also, I've seen references to different places making glass balls for fiber glass. One in the U.S. which I've never heard anyone else mention but I think also some overseas. And I've seen several references to toy marbles being made elsewhere, maybe the Middle East. LOL. Sorry about the vague nature of this post, but as I said, this is just a spot for notes. I actually forgot I started it, or I would have made the notes when the information was still fresh. I'll have to remember this the next time I hit the info. Oh yes, don't forget the 1956 article about marble factories in Hong Kong. Making cat's eyes and clays. The first was opened in Sept. 1954, I believe. Here's where I said a little more about that: New Cat's Eye Historical Data, (new to me)

These were my four best 7-ups. I wanted to sell 3 and keep 1, but this was the best pic I got and it had all 4, so I went ahead and sold all 4 -- just 'coz I couldn't use my camera well! *doh* They were so sparkly green, no photo I took was going to do them justice, but I still like this one a lot. :-) This pic was taken with bright sunlight streaming through the window. The actual green of the glass was deeper yet brighter than this. In other words, it was flat out green. oh so nice.