Steph

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.

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This one says green.

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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.

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Some text from the enclosure introducing the prize names and explaining the contest:

. . .

In presenting to our juvenile customers this beautiful new line of marbles, we have been at a loss to find a suitable name to describe them, therefore we will put it up to our boy and girl friends to give this new marble a name.

. . .

Attached you will find ten coupons. Give one to each customer who purchases ten of these marbles. They will fill in his or her name and address with with their suggestions for a name for our new marble, and mail to THE AKRO AGATE COMPANY, CLARKSBURG, W. VA.

. . .

As soon as possible after the Contest closes, we will have three judges, men of national reputation in marble games, select the most fitting name from all of the suggestions sent us.

. . .

We now manufacture marbles under the following names: Akro Striped Onyx, Akro Cardinal Red, Akro Moonie, Akro Imperial and Akro Flintie.

MR. DEALER

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?

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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?

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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:

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Update from the Q&A section of the auction:

Q: Hello. We're fascinated by the blue corks in a box in which we would expect opaques. Can you tell us more about the history of the box? Thanks! Apr-22-08

A: At first glance these marbles appear to all be solid opapue white. Some are. I just took my light to about 25% of the marbles and there is a slight (very slight) transparency to the white base. They are definately a variation but I would still call them opaque. But that is me and I own them. Someone else may call them semi translucent.

History.... I purchased this box in collection I bought two years ago which included over 60 boxes. The collector was into Christensen and Peltier as well as complete boxes. Meaning he did not put boxes together. We were (are) both friends of the Hardys and I know he bought Akro from them. Thank you for looking and your interest. Lee

See Post #4. I guess Al recognized the box and seller. ??

Ah, here's the seller's "about me" page.

Why not a Prizename box?

Maybe the prizename boxes were more for assortments. Maybe someone had a need for a bunch of blue corks, and this is how they were sent out.

And while it is theoretically possible for it to have been backfilled "anytime", there are some situations in which it is less likely to have occurred.

There are so many possibilities.

So much context isn't shared. Would this "Lee" Al mentioned backfill and not tell? Are most of his findings from the really really wild as he travels around? So many possibilities. And some possibilities include things which to me seem like plausible reasons for this box to be original.

And I guess that's why I'm on the fence.

That and I'm a romantic, so I like to keep the options open about these new possibilities. :-)

So I'm still on the fence about this one.

If workers would mix different colors into specific color-labelled boxes as needed, mightn't they be adaptable and put blue corks in a blue-labelled box?

Seems like a possibility.

If backfilled, when might the filling have occurred?

Things I wonder about ... :-)

(the end of the box says "BLUE")

100 count box of mostly swirls, with some question about whether the white marbles belong. Auctioned by Morphy.

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A larger version posted by Galen:

lovely.

Glad it has a name ... vitros with names seem more likely to get shown than vitros without. Or maybe it's simply that the ones with names are more memorable. Whatever it is, thanks for showing yours. :-)

If this didn't already have such a specific collector's name, would it be considered a superior?

Why that late?

They were making the prize names on one machine in late 1929 or early 1930, and still making slags on other machines at the same time?

Right. The names were used for swirled marbles. And then for corks. Thus the ambiguity.

Without more info one way or the other, do we know exactly what "onyx" meant on July 1, 1929?

The introduction of Prize Names involved two issues: (1) The new cork pattern. And (2) the new glass combos.

The rod and cup mechanism patent was applied for in 1928 so what was stopping Akro from using it to fill up their onxy boxes in, say, March 1929? And then perhaps they started playing around with the new glass combos after they felt comfortable with their new machinery? Seems like there's still some gray area. Still some open questions at the moment. At least based on the info I've seen so far.

We have some great info. I feel really good about the rough date of 1929 for the transition to corks, and it's awesome that we can be as specific as that. I'm satisfied. I simply noted the ambiguity of the names because it's stopping me from narrowing it down more than that based on what I know so far.