Steph

graining balls for stone lithography

How many industrial uses for marbles can you think of? Or non-play and non-art uses.

This one inch hollow steelie was attributed to the Wolverine Toy Company. (source) Another eBay seller once said their hollow steelies were made by the Hopkins company of Minnesota.

Pachinko balls are peewee sized steelies used for the Japanese game. They come with all sorts of decorations. Here's one example. . (source) Wikipedia entry on Pachinko

More solid steelies. Cannonball brand. "Steelee Shooters" and "Steel Marbles": Source of the Steelee Shooters. The 2nd pic is obviously from ebay but I don't know the seller. edit: I've been presuming those were solid Steelies. Maybe someone will correct or confirm.

Okay, I've thought about it! Now I think I see the distinctions you are drawing. Yea! So, do you think the action under the open panels adds so much dimension to the marble that it makes it that much more special than its "banded transparent" or "colored Indian" counterparts? Or do you think it is having a neat name which explains the prices submarines command? or perhaps a combination? ... or something completely different ...

Oh boy ... thank you. i'm going to have to keep thinking about this. this is heavy stuff

Pictures would be nice! I'm trying to understand the mystique surrounding them. I'm not sure I quite understand all the entries in Baumann's tables of rarity but it looks like Submarines appeared in comparable numbers to similarly constructed marbles which didn't have the extra strands under the surface. Yet the prices on submarines run so much higher than on the similar marbles. Any insight will be appreciated. Thanks.

LOL Scott. Are you sure you don't have them all? Oh wait, Dougie said he has a few. Hi Dougie! Welcome.

Mesh bag: (click to enlarge) (source)

Cool! Here's one I saw on eBay last month. I've been wondering if it was "real". Here's what the seller said about it:

Ting Tong Tang gameboard. (click to enlarge) (source) As of this time the seller has 16 available, along with many other non-marble alox items: wooden checkers, an advertising decal for shoe laces, a baton ad, a lasso, jacks, a clown hand puppet, and a "whistle handled carnival lash whip".

One big difference would be the pontil on the Japanese transitional. iiuc. uh, sorry for the delay in answering. I was trying to allow time for an expert to weigh in, then the thread sort of slipped off the page. :-)

Dude! Took me a few downloads to get all the pix to show up .... it was worth it! From the amazing Fishers right down to that CA box and oh so much in between! (a little plug to encourage anyone else with a medium-speed connection who may not have gotten them all to download yet -- don't give up! :-) WHOA!

(click pix to enlarge) Tom Sawyer marbles. Appear to be Vitro. I don't recall the name of the seller. Here's a note which a user calling himself "Elder CFO" posted at LOM in May 2007, in response to a 2002 question about the bag. He apparently was on a search for them and found the link to the old LOM thread. Here's the current Elder site: http://www.elderwearwecare.com/. Here's what looks like a pre-1964 ad from their history page. It features an even older ad ... from a 1919 Saturday Evening Post.

Thank goodness for Google! Here's a new rough draft, from a cached copy in Google. No links yet, and obviously the formatting is lost, but those are the categories and the thread titles I had as of probably a day or two ago. [edit: have retrieved most of the links; as always will still welcome suggestions for new links, or new categories, or whatever] Yea!!! Handmade: General: Displays and discussions: Largest Vintage Handmade? EYE CANDY! Just pics of amazing marbles! Enjoy! ("From the collection of an European collector") End Of Cane Cloud ?, End of Day Four Panel Onionskin? (Discussion of how looking at a marble underwater can help.) Handmades Vs Machine Mades (Deep, plus there are pix, plus there is bonus artwork!) My Finds Today At Collector's Fair In Holland Handmade Outer Bands English (or Bristol) Glass Handmades English Colors? (question About Jonmp's Mibs) Oooh My Latest Catch! Handgathered Eggyolk Oxblood, made around 1840-1850 Handmade Id?, Ever seen one? (Beachball patterns) Myspace: Marble Collector Page! Check It Out! What Would You Call This Handmade? Not An Ebay Plug Akron: The American Marble and Toy Manufacturing Co. (has some glass marbles, wonder if any were ever distributed to the public) A Whale Of A Marble, the end of a german cane ya gotta look !!!!!! Caged Handmade, questions Most Interesting Handmade G.G. Becker's Marbles !, THANX MIKE !!!! What kind is this (need to ask someone soon): Some That I Don't Need Any Help With, (Attention Hand-made Marble Lovers!) (what kind is the aventurine marble?) Picked Up A Few Handmades Today... Artisans at work: Original packaging: German Marbles, Original Packaging Transparent swirls: Latticinio swirls: One More Time. Slurp A Lot A Lurv For Handmades (end of cane & red latt) Handmades (the original picture is missing; I'll try to fix that) Alternating Latticinio's Blue/green?, or other odd one's Orange Latt. Looking For A Picture Latticino Ribbon Marble Solid Core Swirls: Handmades (see post #7) Kewl Handmade Common? Tri-Stage: (do these belong in a category already showing or are they their own type?) Would You Call This Handmade A Tri-Stage? Divided Core Swirls: Pretty Little Handmade Is There A Name For This One? Handmade Help Please (post #3) Ribbon Core Swirls: Say Hi! To The Naked Latticino Brothers Northeast Marble Meet (2-3/8" naked single ribbon) Show Us Your Ribbon Cores Ribbon Lutz Swirls: Ebay Plug - Some Nice Ones This Week! (super pics of some lutz, but what classification?) The orange and yellow lutz marbles are called "Ribbon Lutz" Sue (thanks Sue! lol) Jelly Core Swirls: Heres One I Found Any Ideas What To Call It?, cased indian/shrunken core indian/just to tired to finish it ? Joseph's Coat: Handmade ID?, Ever seen one? 3 Other New Ones, What Are They? End Of Cane Cloud ?, End of Day Four Panel Onionskin? Found At Vegas! (is that a Joseph's coat? -- too tired to refresh my memory tonight) Joseph's Coat Vs. Onionskin Banded Transparent Swirls: Banded Transparent Vs. Coreless What Would You Call This Handmade? Coreless Swirls: Some Handmades Ghost Core: What Is A Ghost Core? Banded Lutz Swirls: Peppermint Swirls: Gooseberry Swirls: The Largest Gooseberry Ever? Pontiled Clear Gooseberry Swril 10/16 Mint Caramel Swirls: (is this "transparent"?) Handmade , Slag? Trans. ? Whatz It, Good size Mist Swirls: Mica: Maglite Mica ??? What Is A Ghost Core? G.G. Becker's Marbles !, THANX MIKE !!!! A Tale Of 2 Micas ... What Am I Missing? What Color Would You Say This Mica Is? Submarines: Would You Polish This One???? Please Tell Me About Submarines (handmade) Complex Core: Opaque/Translucent swirls: Indian Swirls: Wow!!!! What Would You Call This Handmade? Clambroths: Gallery: Giant 2" black based clambroth Privately Aquired Cobalt Guinea And Others, Please tell me what you think MM: Clambroth Banded Opaque Swirls: Lost Marbles Returned...ebay Plug Thanks Y'all For Missing These!, ebay mail call! Banded Translucent Swirls: Some Real Nice Ones In This Bunch!, There's still BARGAINS out there! Banded Translucent Banded Oxblood Swirls: Butterscotch Swirls: Custard Swirls: Opaque Banded Lutz Swirls: Black Base Lutz (do I have this one in the right category?) Corkscrews: Lightning Strike: Just A Pic To Make All Of You Cry...again, from the collection of a European collector Some Real Nice Ones In This Bunch!, There's still BARGAINS out there! Onionskins and Clouds: Cloud Vs End-Of-Day Onionskins (first posts of 2010, the rest below are earlier) Onionskin Question Clouds Handmade ID?, Ever seen one? End Of Cane Cloud ?, End of Day Four Panel Onionskin? Mmmm Sparkly Shrunken Core Onion Handgathered Cloud?, A new mib, EOD Cloud ("Clown and Shrunked Up Too!" -- Road Dog) Lobed Shrunken Core......light Green Glass, but is it end of day or cloud? For All The Handmade Lovers...it Doesn't Get Much Better Than This! (onionskin with floating mica blizzard) An Amazing Marble Other: Sulphides: Rare!, & unusual 2 Very Rare Antique Sulphide Marbles! Get Out The Uv Lights, Purple Sulphide. Old English Doorstop Vintage Sulphide Sulfides The Glass Message Board: Origin of the name "sulphide"? California Sulphides: (modern) California Sulfides, Anyone have pictures?? Paperweight Marbles: Just A Pic To Make All Of You Cry...again, from the collection of a European collector (post #5) Birdcages: Birdcages? Handmade Slags: Nuther Handmade Caramel/slag Mib (with lutz) Simple/common glass marbles: Mellonballs Ceramics: Ceramics (Pennsylvania Dutch, and one sort of like a scenic china) Are These Clays Real?? China, differant pattern Same Design, Different Artist? MM: What is a spotted dick? What Do Bennies Look Like Inside? Pennsylvania Dutch China's, ending this morning One Of My Favorites..... (Akron stoneware, ca. 1892) Did I Pay To Much???? Value Help Please Buy From The Ones You Know., Please let me know if you sell, or who the trustwothy are (see china in Post #10) Bennington's (question about green benningtons) Akron: Ceramic Marbles: Sam Dyke and the ubiquitous clay marble (first mass production of toys specifically for children) Akron: The American Marble and Toy Manufacturing Co. Ebay Plug - Ending Sunday April 29th, Transitionals, Handmades & more! (carpet bowl) Carpet Bowls Here's A Cute Lil Fella (Baby Benningtons, some stuck together) Atlanta Porcelains: (fraud alert) Mostly Pix - Fake Chinas, Tennessee/atlanta Porcelains, and other "antique" ceramics which aren't Stone: (not necessarily old or hand worked) Tiger-eye With Red-agate Ode On A Lowly Agate, The Mankiller mib MM: ...recent marble marbles and board find... (marble marbles) Here Is 2 That Came With The Pelt, any ideas ? (alabaster) "Transitional"? (how should I classify these?) Simple But Elegant.. Percha AKA Paper Mache Hey...got 'gutta'?? Anyone Else Miss These On The Bay? Handmade, old and marble-like but not a marble? Hollow Core Swirls? Handblown Marbles? "coreless" Swirls? So What Is It? Hollow Marbles Revisited

Honey Onyx box, from the E. Schubert collection: (source)

Corn Husk: . . . . (1) (2)

Gooseberry: . . . . (1) (2) This idea "borrowed" directly and entirely from 1DanS here. I didn't know until today that a gooseberry was a fruit! lol

Just a quick note to say I LOVE my new marble book! er, no, just a quick note to say Jane guessed right about the brandies being clearies. The confirmation is in an Akro ad of all places. A catalog which says "The Akro Line is Complete" has a description of Glassies: I love this stuff!

Very rare box: (click to enlarge) (source) Burt/Bermar's report at LOM of a discussion he had with the buyer:

Update: I'd read once somewhere that there was one type of glass marble which suffered from being soaked in cleansers. At lom today Rick had this to say about glass marbles and limeaway and toilet bowl cleaners. I think that was the example I saw before. I thought I remembered it being some kind of pelt. ... wonder what it is about the tracer ribbons which makes them dissolve in chemicals ... ??? edit: When it rains it pours. a couple hours later on a search for words beginning with "chalk" I accidentally stumbled across the reference I probably read before. It mentions the tracers and some Champions:

Did anyone else do mossy type marbles? From time to time I hear someone say Vitro made them but I don't remember seeing any examples. There are some modern, foreign ones with translucent bases. [space reserved for example]

Moss Agates found at the Alley site in Sistersville: (scanned from p. 42 of American Machine-Made Marbles) Alley marbles and cullet dug from the site by Sandy:

Peltier Acme Realers: Famous box, posted at many sites A Realer close-up: Source: ebay auction, Redcougar725 More Realer pix Plus, some of Pelt's other patches look sort of mossy.