Steph

Some Moss-Agate-like Masters from ebay auctions: EDIT: I think the marbles on the left in this first box are actually what Master called Cloudys. And the marbles on the right are what they called Meteors. (See ads here.) These were sold separately but I am under the impression that they came from the same box: To show another color, here is a box Al posted which belonged to Les Jones. Opaque orange also appears to be an option. For an example, see p. 122 of American Machine-Made Marbles.

Moss Agates from Akro boxes on eBay: There are some unusual ones in there. One on the bottom row looks opalescent. Are they all Akro? Here's a pic Galen posted. He said it was from Mike's Salesman Sample case. Note 1: More than one marble guide has described Akro Moss Agates as having translucent colored patches. This is sometimes the case but it seems evident that the patches could also be transparent or opaque. Some of the bases will fluoresce. Some will not. Note 2: It has been reported that Akro sold their ade marbles under the name Moss Agate.

Neat. Thanks everyone! Sue, that's the feeling I was getting from Jonmp's mibs. Like they might be on the way to being English style but without the full English colors. That and they fit with each other, as if they were all sorta borderline but some leaning over the border and some not quite to it. (did that make sense?! )

I was hoping someone would comment on the colors on Jonmp's mibs here. Now the thread has wound down so gracefully, I don't want to hijack it. And maybe the topic needs its own thread anyway. The question is, are his mibs "English colors"? Some but not all? some borderline? Here's a smaller copy of his first pic for quick reference. Thanks!

Seems like a possibility.

Sunbeam design boxes: Seller said marble sizes were 9/16" and 3/4". From another source I gather that the dimensions may have been about 5" x 7". . (seller) This box is 3 1/2" by 7 3/8". The marbles are 9/16". . (seller)

A nice swirl from another seller. (source) The seller described it as a "Jackson Furnace marble". At LOM Ron backed up the name saying, "They got nicknamed locally because most were fractured like the Champion furnace marbles."

Here are some auction pix of marbles dug at the company site. (source) Zebras: Various swirls: "Rootbeer swirls"

Here's the version given in the Glossary of Marble Players' Terms. "SNOTTIE: noun. Familiar form of snot agate" "AGATE, SNOT: noun. An agate with a veined and clouded interior; considered very superior" Gotta love 'em! They're very superior!

Those are SWEET!

g o r g e o u s Thank you. And thanks for sharing your thoughts about your new one. :-)

Galen recently posted a pic of a flame and a transparent swirl side by side, where the action visible in the transparent swirl was like a see-through explanation of how the flame pattern got to be the way it was. Thought that was pretty darn awesome. Seems like the laws of physics and fluid flow might explain why some marbles from different companies look alike despite independently developed machinery. I'd be interested in learning more about how the glass streaming worked. How the nozzles and such were used, how the glass got from the vat to little ball we call a marble.

I'm willing to believe this one is legit, well, especially now that I see it was bjmarble who bought it. But I'd like to hear your thoughts about it. Auction description:

Big Value Boxes. "Approximately 100 Marbles" The first set came from Norm Brown's collection, auctioned at Bonham's. (click to enlarge) I don't know the source of this box, other than that it came from an eBay auction. Maybe more later. I don't know how many more I have on my harddrive. I think it's interesting how the font varied on these boxes, but I guess it's not interesting enough to post picture after picture of the slight variations. lol

thanks!

I frequently want to know what the biggest marble from any maker is. Often I vaguely remember reading some reference to the size. But that's a hard thing to search for in search engines! I've just received confirmation at LOM about the biggest Champions floating around. The intentionally large ones. Not the double ingots etc. So for Champs it appears to be 13/16". Brad/slagmarble gave upper estimates on MFC slags, broken down by color here. The largest were brown or green at 1 7/8". Mibster at Akronmarbles has said that MFC made a 3" marble. A glassie, he said. I've heard some size info about Ravenswoods. But I can't remember if I've seen any specifics. What I remember is that usually the discussion seems to move into whether the 1" marbles in Ravenswood packaging were made by them or by Akro. ... ah yes, like here. later note: At Marble Mental, David Chamberlain shows a 7/8" swirl and says that Mike Johnson owns a 15/16" version of the same. even later note: Ron says the 7/8"+ would not have been made for regular production sale. (source) For Jabo, the biggest ones they made on purpose were 1". Ron said, "1 1/4 up are always in the reject bin,usually rough or out of round." For Master, 1" seems to be the top measurement, though Roger/Sword44 hasn't given up hope for more. later note: Ron mentioned here that Jacksons weren't as large as 13/16" in regular production. Perhaps I'll ask him another time what the max size was on those. next update: AMMM says Heaton made marbles up to about 1", then later gave the figure more specifically as 15/16". Pics show some large-ish swirls. See the discussion here: Pretty Aqua. Anyone else have any good size info up your sleeve? CAC? Alley? Akro? Peltier? Marble King? Handmade? Others?

It can shed its needles on my livingroom carpet anytime!

that tree is sooooooooooooooooooooooooo willllllllllllllllllllllddddddddddddddddddddddddd

I was waiting for you to post yours Sue before I finally jumped in to ask if anyone had any idea who made the peewees in Joe's. My guess is that they are Akro Royals but before Joe's, and now yours, the only marbles I'd seen in the necklaces were pelts. well, I'm also only guessing that yours aren't pelts!

Sweet! I don't remember ever seeing one like the red. (And Rick is right about the topic!)

Sue, I hope you won't be too disappointed to have to make the bag for Cal and Sheryl instead.

Here's a pic of the track we raced on. Like Carole said, a die was rolled to see how many spots we advanced each turn.

Do you suppose CAC made clays? Or did they have some sort of affilliation with another company? The reason I'm especially curious about what clay companies they might have had a connection with is because I still wonder about these Albright packages. If they had some sort of business relationship to put Albright clays in CAC/Gropper packaging, maybe the flow of marbles went both ways and that might explain the glass marbles in Albright packaging. I know there were other swirl companies in existence at the time of that ad who theoretically might have helped fill the bags. I mostly want them to be CACs and if they did have a business relationship through Gropper, maybe that increases the odds they really were CAC's. (lol)

LOL

Here's an Anacortes bag Galen posted at LOM once. Here's the thread where it was. (I think the attachments were removed to save space.) (click to enlarge)