Steph

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

1929, 1931 The company started "in a modest way" in 1929, in Sistersville, WV. (click to enlarge)

1950 This March 1950 ad is the latest of any sort I've seen for Akro so far -- not counting the one for the sale of the property. Note the reference to a N.Y. showroom. A showroom is mentioned in a 1938 ad also, with a different room number. (So this isn't necessarily a holdover from an earlier ad.)

Late 1940's 1948 Lots of info in this article. Different versions were found in various papers around the country. I don't recall how complete this version is but offhand I think it looks pretty good. I'll compare others as I come across them again. (click to enlarge)

1946 Now that I've seen this ad, I've looked closely at the contents of boxes with the picture of the three boys, and they are very often the newer looking patches. But check out the "counter box" photo. That moss agate pic was first used about 15 years before. Note that the Moss Agate name has been blotted out! (click to enlarge)

Mid 1940's

Early 1940's

Oh my. Those are some sweet lozenges.

Oh thank you Terry for the support. That was a bad slip, wasn't it.

Cool!

The Tracy-Wells ad is another puzzle to me for the wholesale pricing details. Was Tracy-Wells actually a wholesale merchandiser? Or more like some of our modern discount warehouses which aren't really? The fancy illustrations do make it look a little upscale. no? For comparson here's an ad which I've seen from a couple of sources but I don't think I've ever seen a company name for. Galen said it was from 1933. Here's the gigantic version Galen posted (924 kb) which we lost during a space crunch: (click to enlarge) Smaller, 268 kb version Or for a quick comparison, here is a clip of the Rainbo box: (click to enlarge) For another example, at 20 cents apiece the California agates are at least as high as the retail of the period. There were news reports on thefts from Calif. Agate in early 1930 and late 1931. The 1930 report valued the stolen marbles at 10 cents each. The 1931 report valued tham at 5 cents each. For another example, the Tracy-Wells peerless prices are the same as the NLR prices at a Wisconsin hardware store in 1931, and the realer prices are even higher. (click to enlarge) The ad is still awesome! I'm just not sure what was meant by "wholesale".

Here is a beautiful 1931 ad George Sourlis sent because of the box of California Agates. It's from the Tracy-Wells Co. catalog. Awesome graphics. And it's cool to see an earlier date on the Acme Realers and Peerless Patches than I had before. (Click to enlarge)

More 1940's? Some more Akros which seem to be from about the same time frame. Jo sold this box recently.

1940's Another salesman's sample case. Again, the exact date is unknown, but my guess is mid 1940's. It contains later era Akros. It seems most likely (to me) that the case was modified to reflect a simpler line. It was 'found' in New Zealand, of all places! As far as I am aware, no others are known. Why haven't they been found in the USA? (some discussion)

Year? This was a new name to me at a time when I might have thought I should be confident I'd heard all the Akro marble names. I don't have much for dating them, but I do have some info on when marbles were being advertised for floral arrangements. I'll gather those up and check dates. Off the top of my head, I think it's the late 30's and early 40's. Though the sample box looks old enough to be from the 20's, it is hard to tell when it might have been used. afterthought: were caster balls named anything other than caster balls? If so, what? In a sample box: (click to enlarge) And the flower arranging balls from the industrial uses thread: (click to enlarge)