Steph

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!)

The Vitro Confetti is an obscure marble known primarily from a fleeting reference in the "Greenberg's Guide to Marbles." The guide shows a pretty marble with a transparent base, speckled with a rainbow of colors. It was an experimental marble that was never introduced to market. As per the first edition of the Guide, they were produced in transparent clear and opaque black in 5/8" and 7/8" in 1984. Dot colors were white, red, orange, yellow, blue, turquoise, and green. They are described as "experimental" and "not in production yet." In the second edition, Greenberg's Guide says the sizes were 1 & 3/16" and 3/4" on one page, and 5/8" and 7/8" on another. The second edition also states that the type was made with a transparent clear green base as well. Pretty confusing!

In the Fall of 2001, things began to clear up when marble collector Raelyn Dolton was put in touch with Tim Sullivan and purchased much of the archives and marble samples remaining from Vitro Agate. Tim and former Vitro Agate Plant Manager Richard J. "Dick" Ryan had purchased Vitro Agate out of bankruptcy and moved it to Anacortes, Washington in 1987. (Vitro Agate began operations in 1932 in Parkersburg, West Virginia and changed hands several times before ceasing operations in 1993.) Mr. Sullivan was the one that closed the factory and he had many Vitro items from Parkersburg as well as from the Anacortes days. Included among the find were the "famous" Confetti marbles!

The Vitro Confetti marbles were made by sprinkling bits of 'frit' (crushed glass cullet, which had been obtained from Germany) on the still-plastic (malleable) marbles after they drop onto the rollers. The cullet was pushed into the marbles by the rollers, where they stuck, partially melting into the base glass, securing them. Most have spots about the size of Vacor's speckled marbles, maybe a bit bigger, but some also have a fine spray of tiny, tiny spots, apparently made with finer bits of frit. Some have only 2 or 3 spots, some are more heavily speckled.

Mr. Lewis Moore (Vitro Agate plant superintendent for 40 years, dating back to 1950) made approximately fifty 1 & 1/4" clear glass multi-color Confetti marbles in a limited run at the Parkersburg, WV plant. This is the Confetti shown in Greenburg's Guide to Marbles, 2nd ed. page 10. House of Marbles in England owned the machine used for these large Confetti's. They loaned it to Vitro and commissioned Vitro to produce large marbles for them, including the Confetti's and other large boulders. All but a few of the Moore Confetti marbles were shipped to House of Marbles. House of Marbles was dissatisfied with the quality of the Confetti and regular production never began. In 1986 they had the machine shipped back to them, where it now sits just off of their lobby. Raelyn acquired just one of the large Moore Confetti's with the Vitro find. She offered it for sale for $250 at the 3/24-25/02 Sea-Tac show. No one purchased it, and Raelyn has decided to keep it for now.

Tim Sullivan also experimented with the Confetti marble when he made approximately 250 9/16" moonie-based and 5/8" clear-based marbles at the Anacortes, WA plant. (These sizes are as per Mr. Sullivan, however, I have measured them at 17/32" for the moonies, and 19/32" on the clear base.) Most of these Confetti's had one color of frit added to each, except in a couple of cases where an extra color was added. However, Mr. Sullivan could not get it to work well enough to put the marbles into production and gave up on the idea.

Raelyn obtained these marbles from Mr. Sullivan as well. He told her he thought that was probably all there were - that they had never been put on the market nor had they been distributed.

The moonie-base examples obtained by Raelyn were mostly red, blue and purple with some turquoise, pink and yellow. There were about 100 blue, the most common color, about 30 purple, 15 yellow, 6 turquoise and 5 pink.

The clear based examples had peach, yellow, turquoise, and turquoise/yellow combo. Raelyn reported; "There were not nearly as many run on clear glass, because they were particularly lackluster." Most (about 20) were turquoise/yellow combo. Seven were peach, "just a few yellow and not many with just turquoise," as Raelyn recalled.

Raelyn distributed many to friends and members of Sea-Tac, sold some at the Sea-Tac show, kept some for herself and sent a sizable group to Land of Marbles for resale.

These marbles are now being offered for sale at Land of Marbles, complete with photocopies of the paper trail leading back to Tim Sullivan!

Thank You Raelyn Dolton for sharing this information, and this exciting find with us!

(Raelyn is working on a new book on Vitro Agate, and has recently met again with Tim Sullivan and Dick Ryan to gather more information and clear up questions. Stay tuned for more info on the availability of this book!)

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:

According to the best known account I recall, if I read it correctly, there were about 50 large confetti's made. 1 and 1/4". In the 50s. (Edit: no, probably not in the 50's, but in Parkersburg.)

Later in Anacortes there were approximately 250 smaller ones made, on clear and moonie-based glass. Most had single color frit. There were "a couple of cases where an extra color was added".

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.

ok, so here's where I think your right maybe, partly anyway and I was off. lol When I first looked this mib over it really looked like a red base. And, side by side with the other 7ups I have, it's definately not green like they are, but... After I got your pm tonight I went back and got my flashlight out and lit this mib up again. I think I was looking at the red that is underneath the surface making it look red. Here's the wierd thing though, it doesn't look green, it's more of a light amber or light brownish clear base, I think. Definately not the green like the others. Could it look off just because more red swam under the surface on this one and it's making the base color look different? Or did they make others like the 7ups with different bases? And, if they did, what color bases did they use for this pattern? I guess you weren't being a turd afterall! lol Sorry dear! God Bless!

For anyone who might be reading this and wondering ... Gary didn't call me a trrd. I called myself one, in PM, for questioning whether it was red. lol

Gary, amber does seem like more of a possibility than red, and a strong possibility at that.

The most purely green bases are relatively uncommon, at least in my experience. I've only had a few which made me go, "now that's what I'm talking about" -- and I sold most of them *snicka fricka fracka grumble* -- I miss them! A little amber mixed in or a lot, that's more common. I think.

Red I still think would be very hard to find. And I can't recall ever seeing one with that ribbon combo.

I imagine backlighting is the best way to be sure, but even then you have to be careful with pelts. Light reflecting off the ribbons or passing through can play tricks with the colors. And bases with more than one color are also a possibility with pelts. I think.

That's cool to see it's still considered practical! Whoever thought of it saved a lot of money. And I know that you were only doing practice work with the copper and "gems" but it might be neat if someone tried it again after they became more experienced. Copper and gem jewelry sounds sort of interesting in its own right. Very casual but interesting too.

I've remembered one more "simulation" use. But I definitely definitely need the source info for that one. It's too interesting in its original context for me to even be tempted to paraphrase it.

In the meantime ... tie dye - 1913 style! Dyes and Dyeing, by Charles E. Pellew

A couple of marble mentions and some photographs.

p. 204, p. 292, Figs. 11 & 12

lolololol

and bahahaha even!

These are fun to watch. And maybe participate in!

Last year they skyrocketed in the last minutes. It was a sight to behold.

http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/marble_alley

edit: oops I was premature in announcing. I guess I shoulda let Sue but I was so excited to see them! I didn't notice at first that only 30 of the 39 marbles were up. I've peeked over at Glass Addiction now and see there was a problem and they're going to be relisted. It really was a blast last year, and I know that in the stretch it will be again.

Very nice, Jessica, thank you.

LOL Gary, we can't even keep up with all the scam issues/ids here, but we'll keep trying. That's one of the things links to sites like ours are for.

Thanks again for the link. :-)

Here's another ad from George. I know this is one I'll be referring to a lot. Some of the new info for me is where it places Akro's original Tri-color agates in 1930 (i.e., the mibs we call "specials" today). And it calls 'em Rainbow! Plus it's got fun Pelt stuff and more, including a Calif. Agate reference, which is why George sent it. 🙂

Wisconsin side. Manitowoc. You familiar with the area?

It's drizzly dreary cold here on Lake Michigan (and I love it!)

So here's one of my favorite riddles. :-)

Why shouldn't you stand under a tree during a storm?

Your turn.

Looks good to me.

Those'd be clays. :-)

Here ya go!

that camera phone is turning out some decent pix these days, girlie.

nice blues. :-)