Steph

Since I've sidetracked the subject, I'll try to bring it back! I continue to get a kick out of the juxtaposition of these two images. Dave/Orbboy's parrot on the left and Ant's 1" Jabos on the right. Jabo did "inherit" Vitro's marble machines when they bought the company, and I think I read somewhere that there was one particular machine used for making these big 'uns. I still need to nail that down. In any case the chances sure seem good that the same machine made all of these. And I like that thought!

cool! square-ish is a good word for the patch. and so is the qualifier "usually". A few are working on some sort of bird or earflap on the side. Many are distinctly rectangular.

Bam! that was fast Alan! Beautiful marbles, as always. Bob, I think you came up with a good one!

do not giggle do not giggle do not giggle do not giggle do not giggle bahahahaha sorry, but that's really funny Jill Marie I knew you would have loved it. wondered why you hadn't said anything!

All the Marbles ..............

Edna, I fear that some of your vitro oxblood may have changed into akro oxblood since you got them. That's not a joke! I think the 'accepted' i.d. may have changed on a couple of them. You know, like how helmets changed from Akro to Vitro. And corals changed from CAC to Champ or Alley or whatnot.

I have a guess now. Since we've ruled out both Akro and Master as making peewees as regular production items, I need another choice. My choice is Alley. We know Alley made peewees. Galen has/had a mosaic set with Alley peewee swirls. My greens look right, comparing them in hand to the ribbons on some Alley swirls. The structure looks very much like the tiny red patch shown on p. 42 of Amer. Mach.-Made Marbles. Not all of them look identical to that patch, but some look extremely close, with basically only the patch color changed. How scandalous an idea is this?

Vitro did a lot of export business over the years. Don once posted a bag of blackies which were exported to Australia, and then made it back home to him 50 years later.

What I'm wondering about right now in connection with Vienna is, what's Parmico? Is that another name for Vienna? AMMM calls 1932 - 1945 the "Vienna/Parmico era". I think I'd better read the Vitro section from start to finish before I say anything else.

Speaking of Vienna vs. Parkersburg ... I think these marbles were made in Vienna ... Still the package says Parkersburg. They always used a Parkersburg mailing address even before they moved the factory there. Amer. Mach-Made Marbles says Vitro probably discontinued the use of the Vitro logo on the lid in the late 30's. (if I'm reading correctly)

That looks like a 1940's era item. IMHO If someone else knows/suspects otherwise, it would be good to hear. (thanks!)

The original poster is surprised as heck that this is still going! And you're still on the hook! LOL

Mike shows closer-up pix here, Today's History Lesson...Alox Toy Company..Long Read but informative!!!, and tells quite a story. Apparently John Frier did make the sunburst marbles. The cat's eyes were bought from other companies but the sunbursts are theirs. A line from Mike's article:

This fantasy Akro packaging is thought to contain Anacortes marbles. (click to enlarge) (1st pic from ebay auction, 2nd pic is Roningeorgia's) And then am I correct that some Anacortes marbles can be found in Jabo packaging? "Many truckloads" are said to have been shipped to Jabo in late 1992 through the first half of 1993, when Anacortes officially went out of business. The cargo included marbles, right? Oh yes, I know there are Anacortes marbles in Jabo packaging. I remember one definite example. Cage style cats in a "Division Of Jabo" bag, with Reno, Ohio given as the location where one might assume they were made if one didn't know better.

I can already tell, this is going to be a FANTASTIC thread.

I kinda got the impression of both. The ones on the lower left here seem to have the look of yours. Coming across as more delicate in general than MK. But some looked more solid too. These are from unpackaged factory stock. The green looks a little delicate maybe. The yellow, red and white look very solid. Mr. Frier has confirmed that the cat's eyes were purchased from other factories. I suppose more than one company is possible. If I find out who I'll add the info. update: some of the unpackaged cats may have been samples sent to Alox.

I for one can hardly wait! How awesome to get to meet them in person. I've talked with her on the phone, and she was simply super.

Hi Winnie. Thank you. Beautiful photograph, as always. My 2nd favorite cat eye color. (Turquoise is #1. :-)

update: these are definitely peewees. half of them are anyway. I measured 'em myself. they range from easily under 15/32" to a hair over 17/32". not counting the black one of course. And someone made them! I think we can safely conclude that! LOL well, one day I'll figure it out ... p.s., some of them have obvious filament action like the ones Al showed close-up, and some are more solid-looking like the blue ones I first posted. Transparent green patches on all.

just in case you, like I, have immediately suspected backfilling when you've seen cat's eyes in Alox packaging, ... don't be too quick on that. Alox definitely distributed cat's eyes. Nancy has them in original packaging as well as loose from unpackaged factory stock. and here's a fun little bit of ephemera she showed me.

Must add this, Edna! thanks! Red marbles used for encouraging chickens to eat more!! I think someone also mentioned marbles ... was it peewees? ... to help poultry digestion ... ??? but this sounds completely different. p.s., yup, it was peewees in gizzards and yup this is completely different. Something related to teaching the chickens to recognize food as food, I think. I've read about that too now, but already long enough ago that I don't recall the details. I'll have to look that up again. Certain colors were considered more attractive than others. Red in most accounts, but one account said that turkeys prefer green. Could there possibly be any more? It's so hard to imagine ... but then strange things like this pop up.

Apparently slingshots were also used for anti-espionage! In AMMM there's a story from Blaine Lemon about how Marble King and Vitro workers used to spy on each other, peeking in windows or doors, and sometimes they'd use slingshots to scare the spies away! Wonder what ammo they used exactly. whatever was in the nearest bin? in their pockets? maybe some pretty parakeets were sent flying. (surely not parrots. Mr. Lemon said no one got hurt!)

Oh my gosh, it was not easy. I've saved the staples. The few flakes which were in the bag. The bag itself of course. It's all there, carefully stored. I could put it back together. I want to keep looking at them though. They're fascinating. What do I see in hand? I see a marble type which I've never seen in any other packaging. I think I see similarities to some 1-inchers which Joe Street recently posted which he believed to be Master Glass. Here's his pic. The center right maybe be closest. But mainly I'm completely in awe to find original packaging for any sunburst-like marble of this size. Has any other original packaging been seen for marbles of this type? It would take a lot of chutzpah for me to call these anything other than Alox. I do have a lot. But not that much. Here are some more shooters from the factory stock, with other colors and possibly more coverage.

I carefully pried open the staples. Here's a better look of what's inside. (click to enlarge) The white haze in the pix is not present in the glass in hand. So how do you like my "new" Alox shooters? !! From Nancy's (and now Mike's) pix I can see they come in other colors also.