Steph

p.s., Felicia, in case you weren't aware of this, even though the German ones are sometimes called Leighton transitionals, they weren't made by Leighton. There was a misunderstanding about where those originated.

Wow, hard to believe but today is the first chance I've had to read the thread. I didn't know my name had arisen. I think of Brian Graham as the man to speak on oxblood, since he makes it. Here is a nice discussion at one of his sites: Melting Oxblood or Haematinum red glass To some (especially in the non-marble world), oxblood is just a color. No restrictions on how the color is achieved. Of course marble collectors tend to be more picky. The key to "real" oxblood seems to be copper crystals of just the right size to block out light -- but not large enough to sparkle. (Already, and as always, I'm worried that I've said something wrong, because this is over my head.) Larger crystals would give aventurine. More about that is in the Jabo book. Adding aventurine is how the recent Jabos have gotten their oxblood, if I understand correctly, and yes, again IIUC, it was a surprise when it appeared during the tank wash on Nov. 27, 2007. Now it is done on purpose. MFC's formula for oxblood was purchased from James Harvey Leighton. Akro's formula was stolen from MFC, along with Martin Christensen's marble machine designs and MFC's client list. Tainted blood. I don't know where Leighton procured the formula. He was an American, from a long line of glassmakers, some well known for experimenting with glass formulas. But I am under the impression that James Harvey didn't, or didn't often, use oxblood himself. Oxblood formulas go back a long way. But why would Leighton have it, not use it, and then recommend it to Christensen? I'm still unsure about the "realness" of Alley oxblood, or Pelt. Some horsehair ox doesn't look quite right, but some of the "ox" looks very convincing to me though I presume it is accidental. My hunch is copper is involved in achieving the aqua glass shown here. A sweet swirl Gary posted, two multicolors of Carole's, one with similar colors from Marblealan, and another fascinating one of Carole's: Felicia, I've heard the "black filaments" are actually transparent green -- like some of the glass you see in Alan's pix. But both Alan and Brian mention black separately from green, so I am not sure.

oxblood I'll let Brian Graham explain it: Melting Oxblood or Haematinum red glass An important thing to know is that "real" oxblood is copper-based and opaque. The teeny tiny copper crystals are just the right size to make it opaque without being big enough to make the glass sparkly, if I understand correctly. It turns out that aventurine and oxblood are close kin. p.s. By "real" I mean the type of red glass found in MFC bricks, that is to say MFC's "American Cornelians", and in Akro's oxblood marbles. [edit: I put "real" in quotation marks because there are other things which can be called oxblood, but in general when marble collectors say oxblood, they mean Akro's version. And in general, in my experience, when they call other glass a type of oxblood they use a qualifier. For example, they might say specifically "Vitro oxblood" to let it be known that they are not claiming it is the same, but it looks close.] Some fab oxblood examples are posted here: Who Used Oxblood? About the word 'oxblood', I need to get my hands on some good dictionaries -- ones with good etymologies, including dates of earliest known usage. I can see from Brian's explanation that at least variants of the terms 'oxblood' had been in use before Martin Christensen started making American Cornelians, but when was the precise term 'oxblood' first used and in what circles? What about the term's near relatives? For instance, what about the Swedish term "oxblodsfärgad"? And what, for instance, does the oxblood used on ceramics look like? Webster's 1913 dictionary merely refers to the color, not the opacity, saying that "oxblood red" is "a dark brownish red". We can't expect much more in a dictionary for laymen. Also, that's a perfectly correct description for oxblood as used in non-glass settings. How was the term used in more technical works on glass and glaze? Somewhat random references deposited here for the time being: 1893: p. 264 of Pottery and Porcelain of the United States. More references specially to Chinese sang-de-boeuf: 1897: p. 335 of Journal of the Franklin Institute: The Chemistry of the Pottery Industry (Also has Chicken Blood) 1902: p. 346 of A Sketch of the History of Ceramic Art in China 1910: p. 27 of Hard paste porcelain (Oriental) China, Japan, Siam, Korea 1919: p. 775 of Chemical Abstracts: Notes on the "Sang de Boeuf" and the copper-red Chinese glazes 1980: Bulletin - Krannert Art Museum. p. 12 of this PDF refers to an oxblood-glazed line introduced in 1900 by Roseville Pottery in Zanesville, OH. The line is called Rozane Mongul. 1907: Streaks of pure ox blood (on an item in an art catalog) 1914: p. 81 of House Beautiful: The Altman Collection IV -- Old Chinese Porcelains 1948?: Optical Properties of Glass from Alamogordo, New Mexico. Oxblood color is mentioned on p. 3.

Bump because Jack got me thinking about BC's. Jack, this thread was originally for non-Jabo buttcracks, but some Jabos wriggled in as they are wont to do. I'm still hoping for some good Ravenswood and Heaton pix. I'm sure we can get BC's there. And I have a Jackson BC which I hope to get a pic of. Here are some Mid-Atlantic BC's PlanB posted. Made in 2001.

I meant the ones with the champagne base. I guess. I haven't seen the base color on all of them, but I presume it's champagne. I said red white blue because I focused on the ribbon colors. Some of the transarent red ribbons there are where I found lutz hiding. I'm not sure I've found it all. Need to change the setting. Put them on white paper instead of the more reflective bubble wrap.

The Edith Irene is definitely a stand out. The lutz is sorta sneaky in some of the red, white and blues. Lurking in/near the transparent red threads.

Oct. 10, 1915 Martin Christensen passes away. Charles takes over as head of the company.

1910 Sounds like MFC's, I think. You cannot tell them from the genuine agates. :-) (click to enlarge)

1910? Is this the catalog mentioned above? M. F. Christensen booklet: (click to enlarge) . . . . . . . . . . . . "Remember the name Christensen's. Known and used the world over." bonus material :-) A possible "travelers' sample box" recently sold on ebay. Found in an estate sale in Kentucky, across the Ohio river from Cincinnati, for $5. The 5/8" marble is missing but would fit perfectly if present.

1910 I think this is most of an article on MFC which appeared in a Canadian trade journal, Bookseller and Stationer. Volume 26, which I think was from 1910. Google Books only wanted to give me one "snippet" but I tickled it until it gave me three. A complete copy of the page should be available from Princeton by interlibrary loan through your local library. (Maybe I'll get one someday.) (source)

1909 Martin Christensen advocating for increased tariffs to protect the infant American glass marble and caster ball industry. E. Strobel arguing against. Tariff Hearings Before the Committee on Ways and Means of the House of Representatives, Sixtieth Congress, 1908-1909, Vol. VIII, pp. 7881 - 7883 1913 Tariffs again. Martin Christensen contributes information. 62nd Congress, 3rd Session, December 2, 1912 - March 4, 1913, House Documents, Vol. 131, pp. 5205 - 5230 1917 This might be a reference to MFC. It's some company which makes marbles and caster balls, and exports some of their product. The Glass Industry: Report on the cost of production of glass in the United States, p. 392 There are other marbles references on other pages.

1948 Marble making machinery is mentioned in connection with the William J. Miller Company in Golden Progress: History and Official Program of the 50th Anniversary Celebration of Swissvale, Pennsylvania, 1898-1948. I hadn't realized he had his own company. Was he also affiliated with any particular marble manufacturer? The book online is broken into parts. The marble mention is on p. 81, found in Part 7. Title page: Part 2 (click to enlarge) Mr. Miller had many patents on glass. Plugging in the keywords, miller, glass and swissvale at the Google patents page pulls up many entries. http://www.google.com/patents?q=miller+glass+swissvale Leave out the word "glass" and you get bunches more. He apparently did a lot of work with pottery also. And had a "pottery engineering company", also in Swissvale? Here, I believe is the patent for what we call the Miller machine: Machine for Manufacturing Marbles and Similar Articles Patent number: 1601699 Filing date: Dec 12, 1924 Issue date: Sep 28, 1926 Which if any of his other patents might be connected with marble making? This one was a big deal, right? This is the famous Hartford-Empire patent? Process and Apparatus for Feeding Glass Patent number: 1942035 Filing date: Dec 20, 1929 Issue date: Jan 2, 1934

too fun!

Yeah, Griff, don't beat a dead horse. Just ID the marble three times (Post #7, #9, #12), then drop it and start another thread where you call people babies and idiots. You could learn a lot from Mama.

Very nice ! Yeah, I haven't quite been able to express what it is I like about these. A vintage look -- with some nice bright colors -- and a little extra zing.

gorgeous

Yah, I think we're looking at most or all Master here. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm under the impression that there were no black pelt bananas. With black, I'd look at master or bogard. I don't know if Bogard did that grape shade of black. Master did though. Master also did white, light blue, pale green, yellow and various red and orange shades. Maybe others. Some of Master's bananas got stringy.

What Ric said! awesome. sweet pix too.

Here's a bit about Daudt. Don't know if it's the best avaiable. Just did a quick google. :-) 1901: Christopher Daudt's home in Toledo. 1908: Tariff Hearings, p. 4046 1910: Memoirs of Lucas County and the City of Toledo, p. 593 1917: A History of Northwest Ohio, p. 1124 In 1919, a Michigan Bureau of Labor report said they employed 4 men and 10 women. I haven't yet tried to reconcile the crockery and "agate" prices with anything else. that would require focus ! I'm not up to that at the moment.

Just stumbled across this. If you have any glass marks you've been curious about but haven't got around to looking up, maybe try this site sometime in the next week. It says it's going bye bye on April 1. DICTIONARY OF GLASS MARKS (this link goes to the animals page)

So would that be a ghost core then? (serious question) sounds right but I'm not sure about much when it comes to handmades.

Neat. Those "agates" can't be stone, not at those prices. So I guess they're what is sometimes called imitation agates. But if that's so I don't have a guess for what crockery would be. Oh, would crockery be jaspers? No, I don't like those guesses. Not when I compare the prices of "agates" and "crockery". p.s., those "agates" are huge.

way cool

1937

1934 Berry Pink trial