Steph

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

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.