Steph

It makes sense that the lightning strikes might have been made at a different time from the other ground pontil marbles because they seem so different in design from the regular geometric structures of the others. (the others I've seen) The very idea of the flaming penetrating zig zags seems like a revolution in style. And whatever techniques I imagine might have been used to create them also seem revolutionary, experimental and possibly partly mechanical, i.e., even possibly "transitional". Just thinkin ... steph

Original Packaging: Note: LOM in front of a link indicates that the linked page is hosted by LandOfMarbles.com. [edit, 5/18/2010: the LOM links may not work any longer. A board upgrade may have affected links.] MM indicates a link at Marble Mental. KC is the Kansas City Marble Collectors Club. Akron is AkronMarbles.com. GA is Glass Addiction. WWW will direct you elsewhere on the world wide web. Illustrations in old advertisements: Some Onyx Marbles For Sale, "CHEAP!!" (See what you could buy in 1933.) Ad Heaven (Feb 2009 note: the preceding is one of many recent posts with ads and original packaging which I seriously need to get linked up -- some very cool examples.) Various examples and discussions: Original Names Of Marbles, LETS MAKE A LIST OF "FACTORY" NAMED Misleading Naming Of Marbles, (didn't start with eBay) Jobber boxes: Colorful Jobber Boxes MM: Jobber Boxes Old??new??maybe?? Games: Mosaic Marbles, Pressman (Alley Agate marbles) Marble Bag... Brown Manufacturing Co. (Chinker-Chek, 1937) LOM: Box of 40 chinese checkers marbles (several boxes with only 40) An Akro Question (Akro brand Chinko-Checko-Marblo box sighting) Akro Agate Chinese Checkers Box, Made by Master Glass? Yard Sale Find (Pressman Hop-Ching) Steelies: Handmade Or Machine-made? Hand "gathered"? (Solitaire set with steelies) Solitaire set with transitionals Solitaire set with handmades General Grant Gameboard Handmade: Trip to Lauscha (See the "coffin box" in Post #7.) German Marbles, Original Packaging (growing assortment) LOM: How about this for original packaging? (Clearies and ceramics in crocheted bags) Some of the photos in the preceding two links came from: www.murmelwelt.de and www.maerbelmuehle.de; there are many more examples of original packaging at those sites. Albright: Mostly Pix: Albright M. F. Christensen & Son: Mostly Pix - M. F. Christensen & Son (American Cornelian box) Christensen Agate: CAC, "Worlds Best Bloodies"?, Need others input (Red Jennies, in Bloodies box, in Post #23) Bloodie, Red Jenny Or Slag? LOM: Christensen Agate Co. Pastels (This is an article archived at LandOfMarbles.Com.) Cac Pastels (It turns out that the marbles are not officially called Pastels. That was a collector's description which caught on quickly as a name.) Alley: Mosaic Marbles, Pressman Bullseye Mesh Bag W/ Coral Marbles & Mk Mesh Bags (the bull's eye bags? ... not all corals are Champion and Ron said Pressman used Alleys) Mostly Pix - Alley (marbles dug at the Pennsboro site, marbles from the St. Mary's site, including a Marble King bag) Mostly Pix - Pressman MM: ALLEY AGATE COMPANY - 3rd Article in the Series! (Allies box, made to hold just three marbles) Copies of this salesman's sample case show up in many different posts: (click link below thumbnail to enlarge) http://i119.photobuc...eCase_142kb.jpg Akro: Akro Timeline Earliest Known Akro Box All About Marbles, A Little Book for Boys (Akro publication, with beautiful pix of 1920's marbles) Akro Heaven, Another must see! (Salesman Sample Case) If You Can Handle A Little More Akro (Sample case with later era marbles) Ever Seen One Of These? (slags, sample set) Akro Ades, And Some Misconceptions.... (see Ringer box in post #9) akro 00 box! (oxblood patches!) Oxbloods And Ades In Yellow Popeye Boxes, Coincidence? Coming Soon To A Theater Near You (No. 3 Cardinal Reds) More Marble Mail!!! (Akro ad in Post #11, with illustrations of Cardinal Red Agates in the corkscrew style, "Fire Opal" Agates, and four Display Cartons: No. A-16, No. A-112, No. 64, No. 32.) "slag" Vs. "onyx" (Striped Onyx box in Post #3) Akro Sparkler - Sizzling Prices! ("Spiral Agates" box full of sparklers) Akro Box, any repro's of this box? (Vintage Specials box, with a mixture of marbles) Akro Salesman's Sample Box, any ideal of value Akro #150 Box Ebay Plug - Some Nice Ones This Week! (#150 box) Akro #200 Box, won tonight!! Help With Cornelians (Cardinal Red boxes in Post #2) Ok Heres 2 For The Road !!, the road i cant find these on (Royals and Heroes in Post #8) I Might As Well Show Off Over Here Too! (Choice of Champions box) Akro Special Champions Box (Another link which will soon be defunct and the pix are already gone, but the discussion is interesting) Have You Seen This Auction?, akro? not? (Stained glass gift boxes, and a question about whether a box not marked "Akro" would have been an Akro product.) Akro Box ... "unmarked" (another stained glass box of Akros, a follow-up to the preceding link) Are These Akro? (Tri-Color Agates, auction photos in Post #8) Are All Arko Patches Opaque? (Tri-Color Agates) No. 2 Akro Tri-colors Box Auction, Are all the marbles Akro? Amana (Royals and corkscrews, plus some solids. Is this one of the recently debated boxes of game marbles?) LOM: Those crazy Akros (Tri-Color Agates, many with Jabo-esque "buttcracks") LOM: Akro Specials Box Akron: What exactly is an Akro Agate Imperial (Imperial box filled with oxbloods, plus promotional letter for the original swirl-style Imperials) LOM: How rare and valuable is this set? (These might be marbles Akro would have called Imperials, but apparently they're not what we call Imperials these days. Not Carnelian enough for us?) Some Recent Stuff, Akro Imperial Box, Red Angels & more (Another box of corkscrews.) Mostly Pix: Akro (a bunch of boxes and bags) Mostly Pix - Ravenswood (see Paul Bunyan bag in post #3) Akron: Small Akro Agate boxes? (boxes for single marbles) Master: Master Marble Bag, Is this a rare bag ? (1933 Chicago World's Fair bag) Akro Agate Chinese Checkers Box, Made by Master Glass? The Master Marble/glass Show And Info Thread (Shooting Star bag in Post #7) Master Glass Vs. Master Marble (Many different bags, and one sweet box of cat's eyes) More About Master Packaging (Many different boxes) Mostly Pix: Master-made (a lot of different boxes and bags) Is This The Real Deal? (Master Marble No. 5 boxes, some may be fake, some real but filled with non-Masters) LOM: Who Made this Marble? (In Post #4 there is a cat's eyes bag with sunburst-like shooters in it. Usually it seems that there are clearies in the cat's eye bags, as noted in the following thread at Marble Mental.) MM: Error Bags Peltier: Backfilling A Box (Boxes which say Marble King or Champion and likely / often contained Pelts. Including a Peltier No. 16 box.) Peltier Jobber Box (looks Like One!) (appears to be a legitimate Picture Marbles box. It might not have been backfilled at the beginning. However, it was partially backfilled when it was listed for third time.) Whatcha Think? (Honey Onyx box in Post #8, the pix from the auction in question in Post #11.) Note: there is a slightly higher resolution version of Charles' honey onyx box at Peltiermarbles.com. Bullseye Mesh Bag W/ Coral Marbles & Mk Mesh Bags (Peltier marbles in Big Boy and Marble King bags.) Ebay Plug - Lot's Of Awesome Bags & Vitro Box, Rare stuff this week (another look at some of the bags from the preceding link) My New Marble Box (Stained glass box, backfilled with rainbos. Is the marble bag original?) We Are The Champions? (Champion Jr. bag filled with banana cat's eyes in Post #10) Some More Rainbos, No. 6 Pelt NLR Stock Box (The box says "Rainbo"!) Pelt Pieces (National Rainbo Line box, and #106 Rainbo carton) Grandparent's Collection, Need Help With Id & Values! (Peerless box) Later Peerless Patches (Morton's Salt promo bag with rainbos and patches) Peltier Juicy Fruit Mostly Pix: Peltier (Comics, Bloodies, Lucky Boy Champion Marble Set, Big Value boxes, Honey Onyx box, ...) Moss Agate Or Cloudy Type Marbles, Akro, Master, Peltier, Alley, who else? (Acme Realer box in post #3) Mostly Pix - Gropper (Cerise Agates box in Post #12) Pelt Rainbo Names (Specials box. Plus Acme Realers box with rainbos in it. Is that likely backfilled, or did Peltier consider those realers also?) Berry Pink Double Compartment Mesh Bag, Amazing contents too. Berry Pink Marbles Help Needed (Champion Marbles Boxes) Vitro: Vienna Vitros !!! (an ad with lifelike pix of boxes and mesh bags) Cool Vitro Bag, Anyone seen this before? (Conquerors bag in Post #1 and Victory Agates bag in Post #4) Vitro Bag? (Worcester Salt mesh bag with tri-lites) Vitro Blackie Re-pops??, are they out there? (See Post #3) Anacortes Horseshoe Cat's Eye (a bag in Post #6 and an entirely different sort of original packaging in Post #11) Ebay Plug - Lot's Of Awesome Bags & Vitro Box, Rare stuff this week (a rare #15 box, originally found empty; see Post #4 for more discussion about what may originally have been found in the box) Need Clarification On A Couple Of Vitros (Yellow Jackets in Post #9 and Post #14) Original Names Of Marbles, LETS MAKE A LIST OF "FACTORY" NAMED (In addition to information about company names, see Spinners bags in Post #8 and Red Horse bag in Post #9) Bright Vitro Shooters...what's Their Age?, Calling Al Oregon or Wvron !!! (Similar to "fancy" all-reds in Post #5; Paris-branded bag in Post #6) Thoughts On These Vitro (2 bags, including a long 100 count bag) Bag of Vitro "lilacs" Japanese Cat's Eye?, USA cat's eye? (Blackbeard's Treasure Chest in Post #18, extremely rare) Starkey-Klicker (Vitro reference, no pictures) Marbles From Oregon - Cac Flame?, Interested in your opinions about marble & seller (See two bags in Post #40. Both are from the approximate time of Jabo's acquisition of Vitro. One is an Anacortes bag from before the change and one says "Vitro Agate (A Division of Jabo, Inc.)".) LOM: Vitro names (original company names pointed out, and in Post #3 a Vit-Rok deco-mates bag) Vitro Tri-lites (names of headers you might see on a Vitro bag, and in Post #5 a box of Tri-Lites) Mostly Pix: Vitro (mesh bags, including Victory Agates and Conquerors) Akro? (Tiger Eyes and Shooters) Ravenswood: Mostly Pix - Ravenswood (the catalog, a mesh Buddy bag, a Paul Bunyan bag, chinese checkers box, and more) What Can You All Tell Me About This? (Genuine Old Fashion Marbles) MM: FINALLY -- A RAVENSWOOD ARTICLE!!! (An article written by David Chamberlain, with a photo of a 1953 Buddy bag) Heaton: Mostly Pix - Heaton Alox: Mostly Pix - Alox Agates Jackson: LOM: Some Jacksons! Champion Agate Company: Mostly Pix: Champion Agates (mesh bag, poly, dug, bicentennial) Marble King: Has there ever been a Marble King tin? All American Marble Set Bullseye Mesh Bag W/ Coral Marbles & Mk Mesh Bags (Peltiers and WV swirls in Marble King packaging.) Mostly Pix - Marble King Id Help Please, Double ingot? (Big Boy bag) Calling On The Marble Minds!! (tin of modern MKs, including frosted ones) Bag O' Commons (look like all-reds) C. E. Bogard & Sons: MM: ARTICLE: THOSE LOWLY BOGARD CAT'S EYES! (A study of marbles from 10 50-count bags.) Kokomo: Any Collectors Of Kokomo Marbles?, And you thought only pelts were pearlized! Kokomos Versus Peltier Rainbos See also: the Kokomo section at the WVMCC website Jabo: Marbles From Oregon - Cac Flame?, Interested in your opinions about marble & seller (See two bags in Post #40. Both are from the approximate time of Jabo's acquisition of Vitro. One before the change and one after.) Jabo V's Marbles bag Mostly Pix: Jabo Rosenthal: One More For The Books, I Guess Camel: 8 Vane Cat's-eyes Vacor de Mexico: Alamo boxes Show Your Atmospheres LOM: Sparkleresque or Foreign? (Vacor Sunsets in Post #16, circa 1992-1993) Pressman: Bullseye Mesh Bag W/ Coral Marbles & Mk Mesh Bags Mosaic Marbles, Pressman (Alley Agate marbles) Original Names Of Marbles, LETS MAKE A LIST OF "FACTORY" NAMED (Big Shot and Bulls Eye references in Post #6) Mostly Pix - Pressman Yard Sale Find (Hop-Ching) Imperial: 8 Vane Cat's-eyes Imperial Age?, 3 questions (See "Wal-Mart" type packaging in Post #11) House of Marbles: House Of Marbles Wales: Id Please... ("variegated marbles" bag in Post #3) Neat Little Box (a Ruskets premium box) Steven: Codeg: Made In England? (several packages, one "British Made", some "Empire Made", some "Foreign") Mostly Pix - Codeg Irene: Made In England? (Post #4 and #6) Shamrock: Mostly Pix: Shamrock Marbles! Shamrock Rocks (See Post #30) Zia Marble Co.: Mostly Pix - Zia German: German Marbles, Original Packaging Trip to Lauscha (Hopf wirepulls in Post #23.) LOM: Foreign? (A box of slags in Post #6) Czech: Joska brand? Czech Bullet Mold Guineas (There's a pic of a portion of a box in Post #14. I don't know if it is original. Mainly I'm putting this link here until I create a new European marbles page. :-) MM: A COUPLE FOR I.D,COME ON,TAKE A GUESS!! (not the original package, but the original label, with the marbles in the 2nd post) Japanese: Tiny See-through Marbles...chinese? (Japanese Pinchers in Post #5) Japan Marbles Japanese Marbles, Original Packaging Mushroom Marbles? Amazing Box! (Reg'lar Fellers Puzzle Box) See also: Japanese Pinch Pontil Transitionals Also see the Wales section above. Taiwan: A Little Help On This Please... (Cats Eyes) South American: Marbles From South America Some questions Bullseye Mesh Bag W/ Coral Marbles & Mk Mesh Bags (Whose marbles are in the Bull's Eye bag?) Have You Seen This Auction?, akro? not? (The overriding question is whether Akro Agate boxes were always marked as such.) Akro Box ... "unmarked" (a follow-up to the preceding link) Fantasy Packaging: Limited Edition Modern Packaging The fantasy packaging in this section is artistic and collectible, some of it done in a commemorative spirit. Boxes by Craig Snider: Ebay Plug - Lot's Of Awesome Bags, 35 auction items this week - check it out If You Never Been To A Marble Show, Here,s Why You Should Ebay Plug - Some Nice Ones This Week! Peltier Second Run Boxes: Pelts, 1st & 2nd runs CA cullet (The preceding thread links to Post #106 here.) Peltier Comics Reproductions: Mostly Pix - Peltier Pelt Comics Boxes Fantasy Packaging: Fakes! The following section is reserved for packaging which appears to have been designed to deceive. Or at least, packaging which has been known to fool new collectors, whatever its design. Of course, some of these fakes may also be collectible to some degree. They might be attractive to you. Or the marbles inside could actually have some value. Is This The Real Deal? (Master Marble No. 5 boxes, some may be fake, some real but filled with non-Masters) MM: Is there a story to these? ("Akro Agate" bags with what appear to be Anacortes Vitros) [Link is defunct - but I'm leaving this as a reminder of a certain type of fantasy packaging which has been asked about in more than one thread] There has been a recent thread about Charles Stutsman who had a lot of old Champion packaging and a lot of champion marbles and backfilled, kinda mixed and matched, maybe put in some non-Champs. I need to link to that thread. He was a legitimate marble dealer, but his backfilling has been a source of confusion. And there was someone in Florida (I think) who put a lot of new marbles in bags with vintage looking headers. Those are asked about often. They're kinda cute and might be worth a few bux each in their own right, but they're not vintage. Also Alox packaging has been created in fantasy form, and some authentic surplus Alox packaging has been backfilled with non-Alox marbles. HOWEVER, there is real Alox packaging which LOOKS backfilled and isn't. Alox sometimes bought marbles from other makers and used them to fill Alox packaging. Need links to threads about that.

The dates for the duck stamps are 1987 for Mongolia and 1991 for Lesotho. There's at least one copy of each on eBay now.

It's a 1989 stamp. :-) A bigger scan: that stamp's page at europeanstamps.net

... give me a minute ... I have something in my eye ... Thank you.

Thanks Jessie. I thought it sounded catchier than "Special Administrative Regions With Postage Stamps Of Children Playing Marbles". Plus there might only be one of those. Macau. SAR of China. Does anyone know which government issued this stamp? I would have supposed Belgium, but Bo's list makes me think perhaps the Netherlands. ?

Red based masters

Or countries with postage stamps of bearded men playing marbles? the State of Kuwait not my stamps!

Lesotho & Mongolia

Too cool! Original packaging is da bomb!

I thought I had seen some reference to a gift card explaining how an Akro box could be both marked and unmarked. But then I couldn't find it. I simply hadn't looked hard enough. I've found it now though. It is in an image linked by Dan in his post here. (click to enlarge)

From the discussion about an unbranded box of "glassies": What do you think about this box? Hansel bought it for $995. eBay listing The seller's description: "Up for sale is an circa 1960s excellent Set of marbles in original box with marble bag.Boxs & marbles are unmarked .A very nice set in excellent condition." I suppose the "unmarked" part could have been referring to condition. But if it had said Akro somewhere, wouldn't the seller have noticed it and mentioned it? From the "circa 1960's" comment, it sounds as if the seller really didn't see any clues to the origin of the box.

Sweet story ... and all that eye candy ... and what do I do? Jump right to the plain red and yellow patches. (That is a gorgeous lot. I feel lucky to see them all. Thanks!)

Wow on the Ray Laub! So, not wanting to harp ... just to pin it down ... this Turbine "Apple" is the one which Lloyd says is "old but not a birdcage"? That's surprising.

Hello Lloyd. To which marble are you referring? The one which was at the other end of the ebay auction link in the old thread, right? Not any of the marbles pictured in this thread. (right?) Thank you. Steph

Nice catch! I love running across these different little touches from different times. Chinese apples: 1930's. Settled. (imveryho) Modern oranges: Ray Laubs? (Not able to find any definite pix but I think I'm reading that he made something known as a bird cage)

Well, you showed some old ones in this thread. And, yeah, in the Lloyd-related discussion you were talking about old marbles. I see that now. So, not to discount the general merit of input from Rick and David . . . . . . help! what emoticon should I use ... oh no!!! . . . . . . (ahem) ... anyway, I think you've set me straight on the context here. Thanks Sue!

And so, though there wasn't a photo in the thread which said there were only 5 birdcages made, there was a photo named "ebirdcage1.jpeg", in another thread. And this other thread linked back to the thread which said only 5 birdcages were made. This is the photo named "ebirdcage1.jpeg": It was David's, and as he said it looks contemporary, so that reinforced my guess that folks might have been talking about some really hot but still modern marble type.

Cool ephemera, that! I'm not finding the allusion I thought I most specifically remembered in connection with birdcages, so maybe I'm mistaken about it, but in my memory the statement goes something like, "isn't it funny that supposedly only five were ever made and suddenly two appear for sale on eBay?" Edited: Here's the post I was remembering: Post #8 in the thread "Bird Cage? I don't think so...". If only 5 were ever made, I guessed that maybe the discussion was about some small but famous series of marbles created by a contemporary glass artist.

Quick clarification here. When you said "they are authentic, made as marbles and not ground-down paperweights", it still hadn't crossed my mind that someone might turn a literal paperweight into an orb. So, I thought you were using "ground-down" simply to stress the flat-bottomed property of paperweights. I now see that didn't make sense in your sentence construction. That's how I was using the term though.

Sue, your 1930's date was just for the literal ground-down paperweights?

Thanks Jane. Thought so, but I wondered if maybe Art was right and someone had to squeeze the tabs real tight! John, may I just say Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and, oh yes, Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't tell if you're being serious or not, Art! LOL

Thanks Steve! ( I wondered if you'd recognize it after all these decades. ) (Folks, here's where I got the pic of the steelie: flea mkt goodies.)

Is a steelie like this machine-made?