Steph

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.

Tiger eyes: . . (Fiber optic marbles) . . (Mineral sphere) One of Al's bags, from Vitro Tiger Eyes?. Galen's quintessential Master specimen, from Master Tiger Eyes??

Couldn't be much more sure of date of manufacture than with Paula's jar of cat's eyes in Post #11 here, Anacortes Horseshoe Cat's Eye.

From Marblealan auctions: (click images to enlarge) 19/32". 9/16" - 19/32".

31/32" Patches: Here's the seller's description: Were these marbles actually made by Peltier? I wouldn't have guessed Pelt if I saw them loose. Also, some of the similar bags in the first post look like they may contain 4-vaned cat's eyes. Update: I'm pretty sure they are Marble King marbles. Al and Ron explain the situation in a thread at LOM, Couldn't resist this one.

G. Kuhnert & Co. Sample Box, from this archived copy of Marble Alan's A History of Glassmaking in Lauscha, Germany, and Vicinity. (May it one day be restored to its rightful home!) (click to enlarge) G. Kuhnert & Co. was founded in 1861. Here are two of their ads from the archived page. (click to enlarge)

Big Benningtons: (click to enlarge) Seller's description:

The cat's eyes I orginally posted here have found a home in post #6 of this thread, Japanese Cat's Eye?, USA cat's eye?. So I've deleted them here to conserve attachment space. I'll keep the thread though ... optimistically waiting for more Bogard pix! Note: There may be other pix in the links here, Compilation: Original Packaging.

Here are some authentic antique china marbles from murmelwelt.de for comparison. See more examples at their site. In addition to the decorations being made with another type of brush or pen stroke, notice that the surfaces here don't have the conspicuous "age crazing" which the ebay seller quoted above seemed almost to praise. Glazed: Unglazed: Rings and flower: One sample from the eight pages of clay marbles at the same site: And in case someone reading this thread has any doubt, you can check here to see what Benningtons look like.

Hi Pat. I don't know how "cooking" is done either. Where did you read about fixing marbles by putting them in a bed of coals? Steph P.s., I don't think the marble fixers here charge very much for doing their magic.

Very modern clay marbles. The Mega "Rustic", made this century: . . (1) (2) These Vacor "stone marbles" appear to have been introduced in 1999 or 2000. . . (3) These aren't "fake" and Vacor/Mega didn't call them antique. But it would be easy for an uninformed seller or buyer to mistake them for old.

After Galen's thread about the penguin I realized we could use some good pix of these on file for newbies. Here's what some of the earliest simplest "Atlanta Porcelains" looked like. ("Early" here means appearing on the market sometime around 1991.) The picture is from this archived page of Marble Alan's site. This is part of what Alan said about them there, In this thread, Bad Auction Picture - Good Results, Jane shows some of the ones with the star ... and one of the marbles still had the stick-on star attached! I've just been reminded about one of the most interesting threads I've ever seen about the background and possible original use of these porcelain balls: Atlanta Marbles. Here's a sample selection of the "magic marker" version from an eBay seller. His "Bennington" is a variation I hadn't seen before, just a lot of dots. Aw heck, I still haven't found a better example of the most outrageously painted magic marker versions, so here's that lot with the cartoon penguin!

Yes, it all looks ribbony to me. There are some fine lines of white, but they seem to be following the wider lines around as part of a single ribbon. Thanks. :-)

Big Boys. Appear to be St. Mary's Alleys. Made sometime between 1939 and 1949. (click to enlarge) How old would this bag of Rainbows be? ?? (click to enlarge)

My best guess at this time is these were made after 1990. Actually I'm fairly certain the rainbows with the lovely translucent base were after 1990. Likely in 2000 or later. (click to enlarge)

If the sources for the pix aren't given they're probably from old auctions. Sorry, I wasn't keeping track of the sources yet when I saved most of these first ones. Tournament Assortment, Berry Pink Industries. Check out the St. Mary's cat's eyes, which I think would have been made between 1955 and 1958. [edit: I based that guess on the assumption that St. Mary's cat's eyes were only made in St. Mary's. I've heard they may also have been made after the move to Paden City. However, there is obviously still a good chance that they're from the early period.] (click to enlarge) Here's a Tournament Assortment cloth bag. It looks like it may have most of the original marbles, but with more added. I see one blue and white St. Mary's cat's eye and some early Japanese cats, plus some Master Glass bananas. And I think there are a couple of steelies and at least one corkscrew. (click to enlarge) The cloth tourney bags were made in Japan but I don't think any declare that fact. However, there is a lookalike bag which is not Marble King brand, and I think that one does say made in Japan. Note: There are other pix in the links here, Compilation: Original Packaging.

Ken, how do the marbles in the box here compare to the ones you have in hand? Do you think these are Jennies? Thanks, Steph