Steph

Thanks Edna.

Not my marbles. These were on eBay about three months ago.

Most of the small ones look good. Mossy like you say. And some of the shooters look okay. Maybe on the plain side yet sort of like the Paul Bunyans Al showed in a bag which had the note attached saying they had come from Akro. (Here's Al's bag.)

But some of them ... The blue and yellow shooters remind me of post-1990 Marble Kings, and off the top of my head I'd guess Vacor on the red/yellow ones. If they are, someone had a lot of brass pawning them off as Akros. They would have had to look around to find the matched sets of modern shooters with a sort of Akro look. Man! If I'd even contemplated backfilling a box that way, I would have lost my nerve long before I managed to complete the set.

The top row of small ones look like they might be from China, even the translucent ones. maybe.

No. 300 box:

(click to enlarge)

No. 15 box. Wow. A steel tray to hold the marbles. Why?

(click to enlarge)

Mr. Block's description:

Rare Akro Agate No. 15 Box AKRO AGATE COMPANY, Original box. Extremely rare original No. 15 Akro Agate box. This is the rectangular box with the metal insert. The box top is red paper covering cardboard. Has cellophane covering the window, but I don't think it is original. One side flap has an Akro logo. The other reads "15 "Akro Agates" No. 15 The Akro Agate Co. Clarksburg W. Va.". Bottom is cardboard. The bottom has two split corners, the top has no damage. Includes the original formed steel insert with five channels that hold three marbles each. Three each of Akro brown, blue, aqua, red and purple slags. The marbles are 11/16" to 23/32". All have damage. Very rare item.

I heard about that guy. All the boards were abuzz for weeks.

For the record:

(not my pix. )

Okay then. Not in the list! Thanks. There's already at least one #250 box anyway. This one would have been a bonus.

The shooters on the left are the ones which seem most wrong to me. You too?

I'm having my doubts about the top row of smaller ones, but it's those shooters which started me worrying.

I would feel better with another opinion before I add this to my original packaging list.

Anyone here think any of these mibs look "wrong"? Or a-okay, regulation Akro all the way?

Wow. This is amazing. I had bookmarked this thread but did not realize how much information was already in it ... and now you're adding more. It keeps getting better and better!

Steph

Contemporary glass artist Chris Juedemann at work:

Mr. Rogers' tour of Marble King: . Marbles

Discovery Channel, Jabo first and then a marble made by hand: .

JVVMarbles' .Large collection of antique handmade marbles.

ABC special: . GUBA: He's A Bully Charlie Brown

South Jersey Video Magazine: 2006 National Marbles Championship.

(Note: link is gone. I don't suppose anyone archived it?)

Fantasy bag. Popeye the Sailor Man Game Marbles.

These packages are not from Jabo, but they're a common place to find Jabo marbles.

More Qualatex. 1988. Two Natashas, a Bullwinkle and a Boris. (source)

Another Bullwinkle and a Rocky, front and back.

Qualatex, made in Mexico, distributed by the Pioneer Balloon Company, Wichita, Kansas. These are early Vacors. Possibly late 1980's? Galen's bag, from here.

Specials?

I'm still sort of mystified by the "specials" name. Here are examples. They don't fit the current "textbook" definition of specials. That is to say, they don't look like there is any emphasis on three-color corkscrews in these sets.

1. Akro Box, any repro's of this box? shows an Akro Special No. 00 box, with an assortment of marbles. [edit: the pix are gone. I can only report that they weren't textbook specials.]

2. In Post #6 of the same thread Art mentions seeing a Special box filled with random corkscrews in 2 and 3 colors.

3. Here is a box Al showed at LOM with two-color corks and patches.

4. Here's a box belonging to Patry, with patches.

5. This peek at the Specials compartment in the Saleman's box which Galen posted in another LOM thread shows 2 color patches.

6. The marbles in this Salesman's box are out of order, but they still look as if they could be all or most of the original ones. And I don't see three-color corkscrews to put in the Specials compartment. (If they're not original, I have to wonder what was taken out since so many good ones are still there.)

7. I do have at least one other box pic labelled special, and again it has something other than three-color corks. I'll add it here when I find it again.

8-ish. And now here is a weird sorta special box Alan had for sale. It didn't say Akro Special. It said Kress-Special. That was marked out and Opals was written by hand. So, I have no idea if it "counts". But it's fun.

update:

9. I've seen one more salesman sample case since I wrote this. It appears to be in very good order. The special compartment does have corks, nice ones. They are ades, popeyes and eggyolks. Still not textbook 'specials'.

Show 'em off next to some small fry. That clear one must look out of this world next to regular sized mibs. I'm picturing the ordinary little opaques staring up into it in wonderment like 8-year-olds looking up at a giant new age sculpture on their museum field trip. (lol @ fantasy)

Submarines:

Circa 1911

. . (ANR)

Handmade

CAC

Peltier

Any more kinds?

Some full-on views and a little more about the physical details of a box which sounds like it could be from the cache Ron found.

Alan's description:

This box measures approximately 4" wide, 8" long, and 7/8" high. It is in great condition, though there is old scotch tape on two sides of the side flaps, which extends a bit onto the bottom. The top is stamped "5--No. 2 Clearies Made in U.S.A.," though the front flap reads "50 Master Cloudy Marbles No. 2." One side flap is printed with "Manufactured by Master Marble Company Clarksburg, W. VA. U.S.A.," and the other reads "Insist on 'Marbles Made by Masters." The box contains 50 transparent marbles, all apparently mint and measuring 3/4". Twenty are blue and 30 are red; the red ones are in two distinct shades. These have the characteristic crimps of this company's marbles and therefore are original to the box, excepting the six red examples of the different shade, which appear to lack the crimps and thus may have been added later.

A minute ago I attempted to edit one line here. When I submitted the edited version, the contents had disappeared entirely.

I shall have to start this section from scratch.

This is going to be tough. Since I'm very new to handmades, I had to work hard to even figure out which categories to include the first time.

DARN!

Space reserved for early examples?

Links to examples?

(mainly space reserved. This thread started out to be entirely about specials. But I've consolidated that into the one post below.)

If I'm reading them correctly, here are the names/labels on the compartments in the sample cases:

• Akro Specials
  
• Prize Name
  
• Moss Agates
  
• Akro Spirals
  
• Sparklers
  
• Onyx
  
• Glassies
  
• Akro Ace
  

And here are the other names I've seen in Akro publications for marbles they sold after they started making corkscrews:

• Moonie
  
• Flintie
  
• Fire Opal
  
• Royal
  
• Tri-Color
  
• Cardinal Red
  
• Imperial
  
• Carnelian
  

I wouldn't be surprised if there were more. These are just the ones I can presently locate in Akro ads and enclosures. Most from 1930 or later. (The reference I saw to Flintie was probably printed before 1930.)

More names I've learned since I first compiled this list:

• Tri-Onyx (popeyes)
  
• Crystal
  

New uses I've learned for old names since I first compiled this list.

• Lemonades and limeades were marketed as Moss Agates
  

What name(s) were oxblood corks marketed under?

• Some I think were moss agates.
  
• Some seem to have been distributed in Imperial packaging.
  
• I think they may have been distributed in Popeye boxes also.
  
• Other?
  

Did Akro use Specials to refer to any one type of marble? Or rather to whatever the marble du jour was? For instance, did salesmen go around with their nifty case, showing off Akro's standard lovelies, and then they point up to the top compartment in the sample case and say, "And here are the specials we are offering." ??

Which names started as one thing and became another?

update: it still seems to be happening to people and it may affect whether they can upload pix.

Still no idea what causes it to change.

At the bottom left corner of my page, I have two drop down menus. The 1st one currently says IPB 2.2.0 Default. The 2nd says English.

When the colors were gray the 1st one said IP.Board Pro.

I changed it to IPB 2.2.0 Default and skies were blue again.

Found it! All better now. Thanks!

Should I see the word "skin"?

just me, hunh?

Oh well, carry on.

... wonder what I did to my computer .....

Is it only on my computer? Or is the board's color scheme different for anyone else?

Did I toggle some switch I don't even know exists?

I can't remember what the colors should be ... I took them for granted. But I know they were much more cheery. Not dark grays.

An Imperial brand mesh bag with a copyright date of 1981. These marbles are often assumed to be from China but the tag says made in Mexico.