Steph

What do you think when you see clays and Christensens together in a Favorite Marble Assortment box? The first time I saw it, I thought there must have been backfilling. Now I've seen it at least three times. This box was on the bay. These were on the bay in another favorites box. And this is from Norm Brown's collection auctioned at Bonham's. You think Gropper used the clays as filler sometimes? maybe clay actually even qualified as a "favorite" back in the day, providing inexpensive variety to the "assortment"?

Dazzlers. One says made in Germany, the other made in Japan. Al posted the pic from Germany, Winnie the pic from Japan. (click to enlarge)

Dazzlers. One says made in Germany, the other made in Japan. Al posted the pic from Germany, Winnie the pic from Japan. (click to enlarge)

I started to salivate just a bit when I saw the ripcurl ... and others I'm not even going to start naming ... but when I saw the flower sitting in the stem, I knew that's the one I wanted to be able to show my friends. You know, the sweet friends who say, "oh, that's nice", and you aren't sure if they're seeing something in the marble, or if they're humoring you (the dear ones have to humor me a lot ;-). If all else fails, when they look at that one, they'll be thinking these marble makers are pretty clever people. The way I do!

... with Leaf Stand. This was my prize in the Great Race recently held at Glass Addiction. I am so pumped! Mike very nicely said I could use his pix. I can't figure out which one or two to show, so here are all of them the way he arranged them! A silver and gold fumed flower with a leaf stand. Marble is 1 1/2 diameter.... side view Back view Looking down on the stand.... Here's Mike's email, in case you'd like one of your very own! [email protected] His handle on the boards is pacosaki, which some of you will already know.

Brilliant Marbles, assortments: (click to enlarge) (source)

Glassmarbles, Twisted: (click to enlarge) (source)

Amber marbles. Could these be the "Brandies" mentioned here, Klondike And Brandy? (edit: I guess not! -- thanks to the extra info about what Brandies would be) (click to enlarge) (source)

Hi Scott. I appreciate Sandra Mackintosh of East Market Street Antiques in Red Hook, NY for putting them on the web so that the world can see them.

Box of 120 chinas: (click to enlarge) (source) I've recently learned that the "Made in Germany" statement indicates these were made in 1921 or later.

I'm seeing some small structural differences between yours and mine, but my sample is very small. And I think I'm seeing some familiar debris under yours. So I'm definitely leaning Vacor. Let's see what others have to say. P.s., even if they are vacor, treat these nice. I think they might be "hard to find".

Do you think they could be modern? If so, then they may be Vacor Sunsets. (Which imho are totally awesome marbles.) My sunsets tend toward the reddish side of orange but I've seen pix of some which were almost white. Your mibs seem basically in the correct color range. (the biggest one here is a whopping 1 5/16")

Assorted Glassies: (click to enlarge) (source)

Wouldn't you like to have a few of these? (source) I did a check for them on ebay and was surprised to see how many brands there were. Guess it was a relatively standard item.

Marble stands, to hold ceramics when firing: (click to enlarge) From the auction description:

Marble King Spidermen? . (LOL ) (click to enlarge) . (source) (sorry, newbies, don't let me confuse you. those aren't spidermen. it's just a fun bag :-) These are copyrighted 1979, so maybe a 1980's bags.

I dreamt about this box last night. Dreamt it was mine and I finally got a good look at the fine print and saw it said 100% made in the U.S.A. (LOL ... this was only a dream!) Wonder what decade it might be from. The seller estimated "about 1940's".

Here's an adorable box which recently sold on ebay. Looks like it was packaged for the British market but all it says about the marbles is that they are foreign. I first guessed the marbles would be German, but then I wondered about Japanese or American. We would all qualify as foreign if the box was to be sold in England. What do you think? (click to enlarge) (source)

Big ones in Vitro, Division of Jabo packaging: (source)

Here's a link to Vacor's present webite: http://www.vacor.com.mx. It's a neat site. Check it out. They've got interesting pix of applications for marbles in the "industrial" section, as well as a slick slideshow of marble styles in the "juguete" section. The text quoted below is from their history page. If I'm reading it correctly, it says they started out making clays in 1930, and in 1934 made clearies, and then started cat's eye production in 1944.

I don't personally recognize the colors on the middle left and middle front. Neat combos! The other four look like Jabo boulders I've owned.

Nice effect!

I'd heard of those before. ... well, just did a quick search. Now I realize I've seen a picture of one other. Yours is in very good shape!

I wrote to Jane, who owns the quandongs I linked to. Wasn't sure she'd get my message since her site was created in 1998 but I thought it worth a try. She got my mail and nicely wrote me back. And Tome she agrees with you and wouldn't call them marbles as such. She'd also read about aboriginal kids playing with them, but she said when they're dry they're not very heavy. It would be hard to play "marbles" with them then. Maybe the aboriginal children played with them before they dried out. Temporary toys? Kids being kids and finding ways to make do with what they have?

lol ... YOU could start a new line of marble production. I would but I don't think we have Quandong trees in Wisconsin! LOL I can see it, quaint knobbly quandong seeds in a flour sack cloth marble bag, or maybe gingham checked? (My dad's marble bag was black and white gingham! My grandma made it.) Way retro! Everything old is new again!