Steph

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?

What is a birdcage, in the context of marbles. There are some really famous/controversial ones, right? Are there old ones and contemporary ones? I've seen many allusions to them but that seems to be all.

Douglas Wiltraut's "Looking At The Moon" the story of the painting ...