Steph

That's gorgeous. I tried to find the description in the gallery ... couldn't ... care to share again? p.s. Welcome! -steph

Al said one of his pix was described as containing peewees. Geometry corroborated that. The size is close. The layout is not quite the same. The Rosenthal compartments have a border around them. Your compartments are given more of the box. I scaled yours so that your 7" measurement for the base could be compared more accurately to the seller's 7.5" measurement for the box. The difference in the size of the compartments is significant. If your box should actually be scaled up some more to be closer in size to the seller's, it makes your compartments even larger in comparison.

The definition usually circulated of prize names is "corkscrews with two opaque colors". Pretty sure that's too restrictive. Different degrees of transparency and maybe translucency occurred in the style Akro called prize name, right? Photos of boxes make it seem that way to me so this sounds like a rhetorical question, but I've mistaken opaque Akro glass for transparent before, based on strange blending, so ... seems like a good thing to get a confirmation for since I've never seen the boxes in person. And what were the original prize name colors? The 1931 ad in AMMM where it says "The Akro Agate Line Is Complete" says they have "five different combinations of two-color stripings: blue with maroon; green with orange; cream with red; black with yellow; orange-yellow with blue". But the two pix I've seen which had the presumably 1929 or 1930 prize name contest coupons in the box had a wider assortment than that. Ten kinds in each box, yet not quite the same as each other, and not all five of the combos listed in the ad. These are the two boxes I saw with the coupons accompanying them: Any one with more info or strong opinions on what the earliest varieties were?

lol. thanks for clearing that up Galen. I assumed the 7" was for the lid. The adjusted figure still puts the red and green estimate a litttle under 5/8" but it's close. btw, I picked the 3 red and green on the left end because they lined up most neatly in their compartment. Dani, that's very interesting about the peewees not being a mass production item for Akro. Still a puzzler since they're not generally thought to be a Master item either. Maybe Master was able to tweak their 00's a little lower for a good customer like Rosenthal.

Zora, my guess is that you have a double ingot Akro. I had one which I carried around for a couple of years thinking it was a Pelt NLR, until finally I was determined to figure out the seams and found it had three. That's when I began to suspect something different was going on.

For fun, and to check my method, I used the 7" figure to estimate the size of Galen's mibs. Without worrying about error estimates ... for example taking Galen's 7" measurement as exactly 7" (not, say, 7.2") and not worrying too much about the angling of the box or anything like that, I got 19/32" for the red and green swirls. Not too bad, I guess.

That makes tons of sense. I was getting used to the idea of Rosenthal jobbering Masters, wondered if/why they might do Akros too. I guess there could be a lot of reasons. But one logical one suddenly jumps out. The seller didn't give the marble size but did state that the box was 7.5" square. From that, using various assumptions about possible sources of error, I get estimates of between .49 and .52 inches on the marbles. Makes total sense that if Rosenthal needed smaller marbles, they'd turn to a non-Master source. thanks!

Rosenthal Jumpo Marblo game box:

That's probably better than the name I thought of. ... strawberry chiffon LOL

Yesterday I noticed that my copy of the magazine begins with page 3. I started to wonder if the announcement was on page 1 or 2. But now I have questioned multiple eBay sellers of Boys Life magazines about whether their issues have a page 1, and so far none do. It appears that the cover was considered page 1. So my copy seems to be intact. I've been through the mag three times now, and still see nothing from Akro! If it's there, I must be looking right past it.

Yes, that's what I heard. But there's the matter of prizes promised. I hoped that even if no new name were adopted, the prizes were given out. And the winner's names announced. Good faith, good PR, and all that. No? I was curious to see if the winning suggestions would be announced also, but I at least expected the prizes to be awarded. Plus, Al once said he thought the announcement had been made, since the June 1930 Boys Life was on his list of magazines with marble references. IIRC.

Pelt opaques: This box says blue. (source) This one says green. (source) That happens a lot with Akro boxes also. Where one color will be stated on the outside but there will be a mix inside.

The winners for the Akro prize name contest were to be announced in the June 1930 issue of Boys Life. Anyone know if the announcement was made? and if so, what page number?

Wonderful info. :cool sign: That leaves a loose end of Akro comparing their glassies to brandies (and wine agates) but it takes care of the big stuff! Any idea what handmade clearies were sold as?

I echo your thoughts. I posted a link to this thread at Glass Addiction. I've been wanting to post the link to their comments. Here's that thread.

Akro Prize Name box with contest coupons. (click to enlarge) (source) Some text from the enclosure introducing the prize names and explaining the contest: Then came the contest rules. There were to be five prizes, ranging from $10 to $100. The deadline for entries was Midnight, May 1, 1930. And winners were to be announced in the June issue of Boys' Life.

You know we always say it, but you really DO make me wish I was there!

Here's another version. Al posted this one at LOM I think.

Thanks. I find this particular pack so fascinating. Weird to have a pelt sneak in. Plus the black widows. Plus, basically the most early-looking mix of marbles I've seen in one of these horseshoe blister packs. I know this package style was used for many years, and usually has clearly newer patches and cat's eyes in it.

This sure looks like a rainbo to me. You? Anyone have an explanation for it? Seen any other Pelts at Paden City? (click to enlarge) Did they order out for pelts? Were they cleaning up their warehouses and found something from back in the day of the mesh bags? Any ideas? (click to enlarge) update: that is not a Marble King company bag. That was packaged by Berry Pink before he created the Marble King company.

The "latest, modernistic Agates" aka "Prize Names" were advertised in the Sears 1930 Spring and Summer catalog. This ad replaced the previous year's ad featuring onyx marbles. (Also George Sourlis info, from his article in WVMCC #18) When would the Spring and Summer catalog have gone to print? And when would Akro have needed to be filling Prize Name boxes to be confident they could meet demand?

ah :-) Glad my simple record keeping was able to help a little. :-)

:cool sign:

Akro Uniques: (click to enlarge) (source)

Update from the Q&A section of the auction: