Steph

bit of advice for anyone who follows up on these or other LA Times leads: be flexible with keywords to make allowances for possible errors. The paper had several inconsistencies in details. Here's what I learned today. The California Agate Company was founded by three men. Their names may have been, G. D. Mitchell, T. D. Meagher and G. W. McElroy, as reported on December 7, 1924. A July 27, 1924 article gives Mr. Meagher's initials as M. T. Meagher was the president of the company in 1924. He may have been the driving force of the company in the beginning. The December article reports that Mitchell had moved his family to Los Angeles about 3 years before. He was recovering from being gassed in the war, and looking for a job. That's when he met Meagher, a travelling salesman. I assume Mitchell was already a marble cutter. Meagher had seen how the shortage of German agates had affected kids during the war. He saw a demand they might supply. Mitchell made a trip to Mexico where he assured himself of the quality and quantity of the stone they could use, and made arrangements to have it shipped by sea. It was often colorful, was in virtually unlimited supply, and was found relatively nearby. The latter was one advantage over Germany, who was said to be using agate imported from South America, and specifically Brazil. (The Brazilian agate seems to have been easier to color than German agate.) McElroy was an inventor and helped set up the marble making machinery. With little capital, their first "factory" was a shed in Los Angeles. They were successful from the start, perhaps with an international customer list. And in 1924 they moved to the somewhat larger factory in Huntington Park. The July article said their new home would be a "sheet iron building", 34 x 100 (feet? yards?), built by H. A. Kembel at a cost of $1500. Their line is given as "marbles, beads and various agate and onyx novelties". They expect to employee about 15 people. They will get to work at full capacity as soon as possible because their orders are piling up. In December Meagher says their output is 6000 marbles a day, and they are "the only firm in America competing with German for the toy-stone marble trade." Their original Los Angeles address was given in the July article as 1511 Temple St. Their Huntington Park address was said to be 204 N. Regent St. Later sources said 304 N. Regent St. N. Regent St. doesn't appear to exist anymore. There does appear to be a 1511 West Temple St. in LA The realtor references in the LA Times may all have been coincidental, neighboring articles to stories about Calif. Agate. That is the case for at least one of the references. But there is still the reference to realty in the Who's Who article, so maybe there will still turn out to be another partner in a few years. Or maybe someone's name is misspelled in the articles I've found so far.

Frank Mitchell's story made it all the way to New Zealand. The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 8, Issue 3 (July 1, 1933), Tons of Marbles

So, is it too late to get the papers to print a retraction? Looks like something is off in the caption on the photo in the original post. No wonder I had no luck finding Frankie Walker anywhere. This is the pic as it showed up in the Fresno Bee on Feb. 14, 1932: (click to enlarge) This is a slightly different pic, but same setting. And there's Frankie Mitchell, digging in his aggies in Popular Science, April 1932 (click to enlarge)

Here's the article I most want to see, an LA times story from 1924: It's a pay article though and I reported my Visa card missing last week. I have to wait for the new card to arrive before I can access the article! I've never been good at waiting! Here's the abstract: That's the new name I have, G. D. Mitchell. I'm pretty sure he's not the realtor. A few society type articles about yachting come up with my more carefully targeted keyword searches. Don't know what to make of those. Plus some business-oriented articles from 1923. My hope/guess is that is when the Calif. Agate Co. started or maybe expanded. Did I mention how much I hate waiting!

They were made for playing with. Kids liked them in the 20's. Cat's eyes were hot in the 50's. Clearies were even popular enough at one time to constitute a fad. Southwestern onyx was considered cool in the 20's. The colors were fresh. Different from what everyone had grown accustomed to. In 1923 in Lincoln Nebraska they were important enough for a "5c to 50c" store to advertise that they had just received a shipment. The next week their ad contained the price -- 20 cents.

HustlerPress-file1.pdf

Actually, I definitely have another name of someone making agate marbles in the U.S. at about the right time. I just have to wait to find out for sure if he's connected with the California Agate company. I hate waiting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! p.s., I also have an address for somebody else who sold agate marbles, this time in 1955, but I presume that was just a hobby type operation. Anyone heard of Deslie's in Palm Springs?

Oh yes, the Calif. Agate Co. was one of many onyx factories or workshops in southern California. And there were other factories in other states. Onyx "novelties" were very popular and I gather that the Mexican onyx was considered special at the time, maybe especially the pink. Onyx gear shift knobs amounted to a fad in the 20's. There is a 1926 report that Calif. Agate donated a gear shift knob, a box of 25 agates and "a piece of rough onyx with one corner polished" to the U.S. National Museum. Does that mean they should be somewhere in the catacombs at the Smithsonian? Other round novelties Calif. Agate appears to have made are door knobs. Maybe umbrella heads, but not sure. In 1929, they had some sort of dispute with the treasury department in connection with rough onyx. Seems they lost their case. They protested. A rehearing was denied, but they apparently still lasted into the 30's. R. W. Walker may not have been the first or primary person connected with the company. The leads I still have to follow seem likely to give me one or two other names.

What a tease! I found a California Agate Company reference in the 1928-29 Who's Who in California. It gives the fella's address, tells me what club he belongs to, lets me know he was a realtor, and chops off his name! (click to enlarge) That did give me some other leads though. Update may be coming soon.

Ever? About half the favorites boxes I've seen had swirls. Would like evidence one way or the other for whether that was "right". Onyx. Presumably pelts. [edit: says "onyx" but but I don't think that meant "slag" to the ad writer] Maybe in 1933 the muslin bag would have been filled with Alleys. I do wonder how Alley's swirls were distributed before his Pressman days.

The box was at the 2005 IAMC show. If someone said it was empty then, that would settle the issue of backfilling. lol It still appears to be a Christensen box with an Albright label. And we still have clays and Chrissies being sold together. Cool, there's an ad on p. 73 of AMMM which shows them being sold that way. And now I see that AMMM says that Albright distributed Christensens. On the other hand, it says that Albright sold mostly stock boxes of slags, and clays of course. I'm not totally ruling out WV swirl options, but there's obviously some connection between Albright and CA. Have to wonder how far it goes. The WV options are limited. Only 2 if we're talking swirls.

FYI, there's a Berry Pink article in a 1937 American Magazine. Alas, the text isn't available at Google Books.

1921 The American Magazine, Vol XCII, the issues from July 1921 to December 1921. The article, Did You Ever Buy a Toy for a Child?, by Sophia Delavan naturally mentions marbles. It's not a big mention, but it's an excuse to post an old magazine with nice graphics. It starts on page 41 of the December issue. The text is sorta hard to navigate, or was for me, because there is more than one page 41. I couldn't get to the last one in the normal way. Here are some direct links. Beginning of the December issue First page of the toy article, p. 41 Continuation of article, on p. 129 The marble mention is on p. 130. It gives an explanation of "reelers", and gives a price. Uses the term "tiger eye" in a new way for me.

Changed name from Industrial Window Glass Co. to West Fork Glass Co. on June 30, 1905. (Industrial Window Glass started at least by 1901) Made window glass. Anything else? I don't know.

Not sure how many online book repositories there are. One cache of books is the Google Book Search. A lot of their listings aren't online -- you just get a summary and hopefully a library or store where you can find the book -- but a lot of listings are complete. There are some obscure ones. Many governement documents with bland or number intensive or otherwise tedious content. Many with just the slightest mention of the topic you'd be searching for. I am mainly noting them as something to be aware of. I'm going to try not to include too many of those in my list for the near future, though I might bookmark them for myself. Never know. One day you might actually wish you could put your hands on a one paragraph summary of the state of the Thuringian glass marbles industry in 1908, say. 1856 The Marble-workers' Manual, 1856. (other editions also available) A book about working with marble in the big sense but it has a section on toy marbles, starting on p. 192. Here's the source of the teaser in the title of the thread. . . . urinous lixivium 1908 - 1909, discussion of tariffs on marbles I know you'll want to read all 8000+ pages of the 1908 - 1909 Senate report on tariffs. Not! but some of you may be interested in five particular pages about glass marbles. Volume VIII, Appendix. See pages 7881 through 7883. A discussion of pros and cons of tariff increases, circa 1908-1909. The importer Strobel & Wilken argues against increased tariffs. M. F. Christensen & Son argues for an increase. The importer's argument is that the marbles imported are substantially different from those made in the U.S. so there's no real competition. Also, the quantity of glass marbles coming into the U.S. seems to be on the decline, another sign that imports are not a threat. Strobel & Wilken ask that the tariffs on foreign marbles stay the same. Martin Christensen discusses how young the U.S. toy marble and caster ball manufacturing business is. He gives October 1904 as MFC's starting date. He also gives an example of his production costs. He stressed that low wages in other countries allowed importers to purchase foreign marbles at a figure substantially below his costs, making this new industry a textbook example of what protection laws are intended to aid. A substantial increase in tariffs is requested. And then here's a letter from the president of the United States Glass Company of Pittsburg, PA which mentions the new glass marble industry. Schedule B, Earths, Earthenware, and Glassware. See pages 1089 and 1090. ----- I don't know yet whether there is more in that report about marbles, or caster balls, or M.F. Christensen. I haven't made a systematic search yet. I already know there is a potential for a lot of information to be found in other documents using those keywords. Still without searching on purpose, I see a 1913 tariff report with another letter from Martin Christensen, and one written to him from Germany. Lots of details on wages. ----- 1870-something? I've misplaced one I found in December. Yes, another government report but it had a lot of information about German in the 1800's. Stats about regional industries, which of course included marbles. Wages. Cost of living. That sort of thing.

I haven't seen a listing verifying that. The only listing I've found so far says possibly not original. I hoped that someone might know for sure whether the contents changed relatively recently. Quick cost comparison: the price of marbles in the Albright Glass Agates bags was 10 times the price of their undyed clay marbles.

Oops, didn't mean to skip your comment Duffy. I bet you're right. A lot of kids would have been shut out by cost if they needed glass marbles. I think the national tournament was pretty much forced to go to glass in 1942. It seems that Albright (or possibly I should say their successor Ravenna Ceramics?) needed to do something defense-related instead of toys.

That would make sense, Jo. If those are what were found in bags such as these, the box would have been a convenient way to show retailers what to expect. Interesting passage, Terry. The using up old stock idea is something I toyed with before considering a more active trading relationship between the two companies. That passage explains why Christensen might have had old stock on hand.

Transparent and twisty, if not an actual swirl. It's just for fun, right?

Yeah, looks like a match. I wish I knew what "professional" meant there! I just learned that the national tournament required clay mibs as targets during the whole time Christensen was in business. That might have been a good reason to include clays in the assortments. When I first learned of clays in Favorite Assortment boxes, I wondered what the point was. Glass was where it was at, right? So I thought maybe the clay mibs were cheap filler. And maybe they were. But kids who wanted the best prep for tournament play would need them to practice with. I guess using clay mibs as target marbles would have kept Chrissies prettier longer. :-)

I'm kinda excited. I found an Akro ad last night which has given me a bit of a shock. Is it possible that straight out of the gate, Akro made more marble styles than M.F. Christensen? This Akro ad is from the December 1914 Playthings catalog. It might be the first Akro ad with a Clarksburg address. The MFC ad supposedly reflects their line from 1911 through most of 1915. 8 colors for Akro. 6 for MFC. (the nat'l onyx entry covers brown and green) Michael Cohill's MFC book says they introduced their White Onyx on Sept. 12, 1915 in response to competition from Akro. So it sounds as if Akro had a white onyx before MFC. ?? (click to enlarge) . . . . . With all the time and effort Akro had to put into absconding to Clarksburg and trying to develop a working machine which was different enough from MFC's to get them a legally recognized patent, how would they have had time to invent a new marble type? Horace Hill was no expert, so how would he have come up with these things? Did he have expert help? Bonus question: Who would have made the yellows in this Akro box with the Akron address? And when? It doesn't seem as if they were a regular production item of MFC's, but if that's Akro's yellow, then why would it be in an Akron box? Could Hill have taken their yellow output when it was still in the experimental stage? (click to enlarge) Some background for reference if anyone needs it: Primary source is Michael Cohill's, M.F. Christensen and the Perfect Glass Ball Machine. Akro's marble machines were based on designs stolen from MFC by Horace Hill. Akro purchased their first marbles from MFC in 1911. Hill began embezzling from MFC and cooking their books in Feb. 1912. In Sept. 1912 Hill applied for a patent on a marble machine. His application was denied because it was too similar to Christensen's. Though no purchases are recorded after Feb. 1912, Akro continued to have enough MFC marbles to sell until their move to Clarksburg in 1914. Hill's embezzlement was first discovered in February of 1913 when a client wrote to say they'd overpaid but no record of any payment could be found. Hill was allowed to make restitution and stay with the company. His embezzlement continued, again unnoticed. In August 1913 he resigned on good enough terms that he was given a small bonus. He took with him MFC's client list and glass formulas. Unknown to the Christensens, he went to work at Akro, and started scouting for a new location for the company. Clarksburg was chosen for the new factory. Hill finally tweaked Christensen's designs enough to secure his own patent. And Akro Agate was in production by the Fall of 1914. Hill's design was flawed and would have had a high rejection rate but it was close enough to MFC's and it was faster than MFC's. Akro quickly became a serious threat. In Oct. 1914, Martin Christensen discovered that Akro was underbidding him with his best clients. It turns out that MFC still did very well in 1915 but they had to hustle. They lowered prices, gave volume discounts and decided to expand their line. Their first new marble was the White Onyx, which was introduced in September. Martin died in October. His son Charles took the helm. 1916 was a stellar year, with the help of a new Purple Onyx and more incentives to their better customers. MFC still had a worldwide clientele. 1917 looked promising too, until the U.S. entered the war. The war and a harsh winter created a natural gas shortage. MFC had to turn off their furnaces on December 10. No more marbles were made but they had a massive inventory on hand and they continued to fill U.S. orders into 1919. Before 1911, MFC's line had 7 marbles. The style they dropped was the Imperial Jade, a lighter green than the Oriental Jade. They had other types which were made on a limited basis. Some of those weren't marketed. The Moss Agate is one of their rare marbles; it was made throughout the life of the company but in small numbers. The Blood Agate seems to be a variation on the Moss Agate -- also very rare. Their opaque Lavender was produced for only two days: on Nov. 19th and 20th of 1917. Other marbles described as experimental or limited production: translucent bluish green, opaque green Cornelian-like, dark brown onyx, translucent cerulean blue, opaque cerulean blue, clear with Cornelian (oxblood) swirls, clear with translucent cerulean blue swirls, and non-fluorescing opaque yellow. So if MFC sold their opaque yellow, when would that have been?

This box is on the block at Morphy's. It appears to be one which was pictured in an IAMC show report, maybe 3 years ago. Only the lid was shown in the show thread though. Wondering if there is any extra info available about the background of this particular box. Wjhat I know at the moment is general info suggesting an arrangement between Albright and CAC. They were both in Ohio of course. In 1933, Albright was selling 2 color glass agates wholesale in bags of 500 for $1. Also, clay marbles are found together with CAC's in the CAC Favorite Marble Assortment boxes. Pretty sure Albright was the clay marble maker while CAC was in business.

Were any of those marbles in that ad made by Akro yet, or did that reflect an expanded MFC line? In M.F. Christensen and the Perfect Glass Ball Machine, Cohill says Akro had had a successful test of their new (pirated) machines in the fall of 1914. They were able to practically duplicate MFC's marbles. Did they immediately go into production after that test? It sounds as if that was the case, and the competition forced Christensen to make some changes. MFC's pricelist for Jan. 1, 1914 has six types: National Onyx (Brown Onyx and Green Onyx), Royal Blue (Cobalt Blue Onyx), American Cornelian, Persian Turquoise, and Oriental Jade. If I read correctly, that was their line until September 1915, when they introduced their White Onyx. So did Akro really have a White Onyx in 1914 as advertised? Did they beat MFC to it? And what about the Golden Yellow?

Update: From December of 1914 .... this might be the first Clarksburg ad. From a Playthings catalog: (click to enlarge)

Thanks for clearing that up. I was confused about whether the Akros were in the Dumping Sandy, or in another Wolverine toy which came with the Dumping Sandy. It was still fun to read about the marble motion toys. :-)