Steph

On the last three occasions I remember discussing the Ace vs. Moss issue, you said I lost you, Kevin quit speaking to me and Brian's head started hurting. Are you sure you don't want to retract your question? :Sad_headshake_tweetz: Okay then. Ace and moss are two different animals. Yes, to the best of my knowledge, the Blue Eggyolk was a moss agate to Akro. Ringer, nuh uh, not going there tonight! Here are Akro's descriptions of their moss and ace agates. This is going to hurt someone's head too. I editorialized some but I tried to let Akro speak for itself. There are a couple of things in Akro's descriptions of Moss Agates and Aces that I don't remember us discussing before. The "pattern" of moss agates and the size of aces.

AMMM said that at their time of peak production they had 6 or 7 machines in operation. In spite of a success enough to supposedly merit an expansion of the facilities in 1946, I imagine that whatever was reported before the the war would be close to peak. Also, 120 sounds like a figure which would might have come from multiplying the estimated output for a single machine by 6. 20 marbles a minute per machine? Sounds like a figure we ought to be able to confirm somehow. But I'm not sure where to look at the moment. It could even be in the Akro chapter of AMMM. I need to read that chapter thoroughly soonish. Love that book but the fine print means it's not all that skimmable. :-) Note: In 1903, Martin Christensen's machines could already make about 10 marbles per minute. (apiece)

If he restored German cars they'd be VW swirls. :icon_lmao: :rol:

It's a Moss Agate box. Many do appear to be "Ades" -- of course many moss agates fluoresce. Box wouldn't say Aces tho' -- that's the Akro name we talked about a coupla months ago, the one collectors have borrowed and put on the moss agates corks.

or did I miss something? that modern marble king box went for $175. Was it really a "salesman's box"? if so, would that explain such a high price for modern MKs?

Did Morphy used to be better at ID-ing their mibs than they were this time? I didn't check all the auctions -- for instance I didn't check handmades -- but I did see some serious faux pas in a few of the more common marble auctions. I need to compare the final prices with the estimates. Coz it seemed like too many boxes were estimated at about $200. ... with modern marble kings estimated higher than most.

I'm still unclear on when Yellow Jackets were made. For at least part of their life they were made concurrently with All-Reds, yet were made only a "short" time (whatever that means exactly). The ratio of blackline all-reds to yellow-jackets is very high. One figure I heard was 25 to 1. So it seems that this might put the Yellow Jackets in the year 1959, plus or minus a "short" time.

These are an inch. That's where I'd put it without better evidence on which to base a different decision. you already know or can likely guess what the name on this box is.

Carole "tosses" pelt comics -- at least one of them! !! Are those in your office? Makes one wonder how many are sitting at home.

I would guess not a ringer. Serious question: were Ringer boxes ever 1 inch deep?

1941 West Virginia: A Guide to the Mountain State By Federal Writers' Project, 1941 http://books.google.com/books?id=Q3n11Tg9kDoC&pg=PA215 Surprisingly little about marbles actually. There's a Libby Owens Ford / Vitrolite mention, but nothing about Vitro, Ravenswood, Alley, .... The only marbles reference I found was this about Akro, and a related one 5 pages earlier:

The Goebel decorative ware business was funded with profits from marbles sales. That was new info to me. W. Goebel Porzellanfabrik Company

1957 (click to enlarge) 1958 (click)

Hi Peter. Sorry no one chimed in. Might be good to start a new thread, but then again, it's such a unique practice anymore, you still might not get a response. (tho' I personally would love to hear more.) I saw some reference to people making playing marbles this way in the 1940's and 1950's. Just a couple of them, only small individual operations. I might have seen something a little later than that, but nothing very recent. Oh, I think I remember Brian Graham talking about them being available at some point in the last couple of years. I don't know what came of that. But he might be a good person to talk to anyway. His i.d. here is akronmarbles. Here's his site: http://akronmarbles.com/

I was about to link to that page, even before I saw that there was a Victory bottle on it. Not because I necessarily thought yours was a "fake", but because I bought a codd bottle last year, then found it on that page and wrote the guy whose email address is given on the contact page. It took a coupla weeks, for which he apologized, but he wrote to tell me that mine isn't "fake" exactly. just newer. Mine was still in use in India, he said.

Those are cute. Thanks for posting them. Not surprisingly, there were stories of kids vandalizing the highway signs to get the marbles.

LOL all of that was because I finally decided to check out that Defoe passage after seeing it for the umpteenth time this evening when I pieced together the following: 1951 (click to enlarge) Sorry if the ransom note look seriously bugs anyone. I sorta like it. Breaks up the monotony of plain type.

1720 The Life and Adventures of Mr. Duncan Campbell, by Daniel Defoe This book used to be mentioned fairly often in articles about marbles. Many (most? all?) quote Defoe as saying "marbles and alleys". But it appears that the word he used was "alloys". Alleys makes sense as Alabasters, but Alloys makes sense as composite materials. "Marbles and alleys" might be redundant. Here's an example of what seems to be a misquotation -- the 1903 book Slang and Its Analogues Past and Present by John Stephen Farmer. Note: the "pellets, vulgarly called alleys, which boys play withal" reference should have an earlier date than 1807. This text has the reference and it was published in 1756. The quotation maybe be older than that. I see a reference to the year 1665 but I am having trouble reconciling that date and the names Hauksbee and John Martyn. Perhaps when I read more I will learn that this is being quoted from some other place. But we at least have as early 1756. The alley reference is in a table of specific gravities computed for various items. The table seems to have been compiled from various sources. The reference to alleys, and a later reference to marbles, are apparently to help make clear what substance is being measured. Doesn't "pellet" sound more like clay than stone? (click to enlarge) On the 2nd page check out the reference to spotted factitious marble. What would that be?! John Martyn (? - 1680) at Wikipedia Francis Hauksbee, the elder (1666-1713) Francis Hauksbee at Wikipedia Francis Hauksbee, the younger (c. 1687 - 1763)

Lloyd, I actually can't quite make out what those marbles look like. They base comes across as sort of cloudy on my monitor, and I know how particular some are about a ringer base being totally clear. but I'm not sure I'm seeing it right. That's why I was confused by what John said. I thought things were cool enough to ask a question without it being turned into a flame.

Huh? I wasn't insinuating that Lloyd had anything improper in the box. But how many types of marbles did Akro sell in that box? And still we call one particular type a Ringer. How many marbles did Akro sell in Popeye boxes? and still we call one particular type a popeye. Why would I slam you? I wanted to know what you meant. So I asked, without making any negative assumptions about you. Killer box, Lloyd.

Different version with a better look at the text but less detail on the image:

Um, so no, not tongue in cheek. Well, I wondered because I don't suppose the question of what real ringers look like will ever be put to rest. Someone will always say that ringer is a game, not an Akro company name. Someone else will say they saw other marbles in some well-known ringer box. Someone else might say they remember that box, but it wasn't how the first person remembered. Someone else will debate how clear the interior needs to be. Most of us will listen only to the people who are saying what we already believe to be true. I'll be chewing my knuckle trying to resist the temptation to fill a post with pix I think are relevant but no one else would ... ... or something like that ....

Original content moved, leaving spare space for now

Ooooh, Janice did good!

1931 (click to enlarge)