Steph

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

This box and Ken's didn't look identical to me. But if you see a match, that means something. As to Mike's implicit id, for him to say he sees a match to a picture in a book means next to nothing to me. My impression from some of his auctions is that he sometimes implies things which might not be accurate. Then if anyone came back later and said they'd learned the marbles weren't Jennies, he could say he never explicitly said they were, and wash his hands of it. (That's my impression from some of his other auction listings.) So, without backup from credible sources, all I had was a hesitant match between this box and Ken's. Hence my questions.

From the sublime to the ... cat's eyes. (click to enlarge) The auction description: When I saw the gallery photo for those, I guessed they were from Japan. When I read otherwise I did a search for some sort of confirmation. Here's a page which says this type of marble is from the 1950's and is the last kind manufactured industrially in Germany, Murmeln unsrer Kindheit, die originalen Murmeln der 50er Jahre. The site says it has some of the last marbles made in Ilmenau, and it offers them for sale. Here's a sample lot showing more of the old cat's eyes: (click to enlarge)

Fair use. .

I don't know. They're discussed starting in Post #23 here, CAC, "Worlds Best Bloodies"?, Need others input. If you have Grist's Big Book, 3rd ed., look at p. 78, Plate 169. That's where I've read you can see a picture. I don't have the 3rd edition, so I don't know what you'll see! This box is from the Marquee auction. The description said these were like the ones on p. 78 of Grist.

Which? Why? Thanks.

And then here you have your basic, world-famous Jabo cage-style cat's eyes from Reno, Ohio.

Don't know if the marbles are Ravenswood, but here's an Assorted Colors box like the ones they call "Our Leader" in that catalog. This is the 30 marble size. (click to enlarge)

#131 box? Does anyone have pix from the auction mentioned here, Akro Special Champions Box? Or anything like that? Auction description:

And then we jump ahead a decade or two. Here are some early Japanese cat's eyes. The ones with bright colors, and pretty, sometimes peachy base glass. Pre-1964. Uncle Jack's Glass Marbles: Source (with more pix and discussion): Old package or new? And while I was at LOM looking that up I found a couple more links ... Pressman dishes by Alley Maker? (intriguing Pressman reference ... need to ask Chuck about that bag)

Sureshot Glass Marbles, Asstd Sizes.

Thanks Old Feller!

I was kinda thinking it showed excitement in the market. I would think of that as more good than bad! After watching the marble market slide ... to see an upturn however long it lasts ... sort of interesting. List your sparklers, Galen!

(click pix to enlarge) If I have anything to say about any carpet bowls beyond what the sellers of the bowls said in their descriptions, most likely it will come from Paul Baumann's, Collecting Antique Marbles: Identification and Price Guide, 4th ed (2004). (the same book the Marquee Marble auction refers to below) Marquee Marble's auction description: (winning bid was $350) Individually Baumann estimates the value of the crosslined bowls to be $140 each and the crown bowls to be $160 each. He says the crown is the most common sponge-printed style. But among striped pattern bowls, "plaid" would be more common than crosslined. Bob Block calls the next two "mochaware". The closest I find to these in Baumann is what he terms "agateware". Baumann estimates the value of his examples at around $250 and says: Auction description: (At the time of this writing, the asking price for this bowl is $299.) And here's a larger yet more delicate example. Description: (Asking price: $325)