Swissmarble

Alan was always so helpful and so I had an agreement with him that he collected and forwarded marbles for me which I bought in the USA to save money on postage an custom-fees. This marble was sent to him when he was already very ill and he died before he was able to forward it to me. I got it eventually with the help of Cheryl (thanks again, Cheryl !!) and so this beautiful marble became the "Alan Basinet Marble" for me and it is a great memory of him....I am sure he would like this ! Ron

Nice ones, thanks, Roger Ron

Hi Winnie Thanks for he pic. Yes, I have several of those. But I have not a single one or even seen one with transparent glass like the other one is. Probably no difference in making, but this transparent stripe looked strange to me and therefore I wondered if others have similar marbles. But obviously it is more common than I thought (or hoped ). Thanks ! Ron

Hi Roger Interesting, thanks for the pics. Could you post a pic of the latticinos you mentioned too ? I am just curious how they look. Thanks Ron

Hi I got this marble lately. It is an alternating latticino but the strange thing is the green glass part between the two white bands. I have never seen an old handmade with colored glass embedded in white glass. The design looks like a banded lutz, but instead of the lutz it is green glass. What do you think ? Thanks for your help ! Ron

Hi Hansel That is a really interesting leaflet. I tried to do some research in the internet. I found this book here in which all the glass-manufacturers in Germany were published, the "Glasfabrik Wernerhuette" too. The book was published in 1907. http://archive.org/stream/deutschlandsgla00unkngoog#page/n2/mode/2up But more interesting is the fact, that on "your" leaflet is mentioned that they also produce glass-parts for radios ! According to google the first radio-station in Germany was on air in 1923 ! So the leaflet has to be published later, my guess is between 1925 and 1933, when Hitler was elected for chancellor. So this leaflet proves that marbles like sulphides, onionskins and swirls were definately produced between WW I and WW II which is very interesting because I (and probably most other collectors) always have thougth that no such marbles have been produced after WW I !! So the time range for these marbles has to be approximately from 1870 to 1930 or so. Really really interesting, thanks a lot for posting it ! Ron

I still believe these were made before World War I. I just can't imagine that the Germans were able to produce handmade marbles after World War I. The country was totally down by then and I guess they had other priorities than producing marbles. I noticed that several of these marbles showed up in England, so they probably have been exported once. But who knows... interesing topic. Ron

OK, Jeroen, you know mines already, but it might be interesting for others to see them. I hope others will post some pictures too, it is one of my favourite type of marbles and there are not many to see in books. So, show you treasures, please. Thanks ! Ron

It is a true beauty, Jeroen. I have never seen such a "horizontal" submarine

Personally I think that "CallBob" is as fake as "his" marble....

Hey Mike, I like your cabinets. It is not easy to get nice cabinets to display marbles. For my old marbles I prefer old (or at least old-looking) cabinets. This is my favourite one, it was originally made to display chocolate !! It is not very old, but it looks fantastic with the Onionskins. Ron

Thanks, Jeroen, why don't you post a picture of your new finds, I am sure you digged out some treasures in Holland, didn't you ? :cool-smileys-262: Ron

and here are the modern ones..... Happy holidays ! Ron

It was a rather expensive but successfull year.... Today I took out all the marbles I was able to buy this year and made photos of them. It was a nice thing to do because I wasn't aware how many new marbles I added to my collection this year, I was really surprised to see this bunch in front of me. I really hope that all of you were able to add some nice marbles to your collections and I would love to see pictures of your finds. Here are the antique ones.....

@Winnie and Ziggyzora I posted your pics now, thank you very much. If you have time, please send me some pictures of your favourites marbles. As you can see on my homepage I would like to show marbles from as many different collectors as possible. It would be really nice if you participate, so their would be some collections from Europe at the beginning and hopefully some collectors from the USA and other parts of the world would jump in and send pictures too. @everyone: Pictures can be emailed to: [email protected] (and please let me know if you want to stay anonymous or if I shall mention your name, town and email-address Thanks Swissmarble www.glasmurmeln.com

@ Winnie, nice marbles, thanks for the pics. May I upload these with your info on my homepage please ? @ Zyggyzora thank you, I will upload your pics, perhaps some other collectors from Europe will show up sooner or later. Would be very nice, there seem to be just a few around Swissmarble www.glasmurmeln.com

Ziggyzora Thanks for the pictures. Very interesting marbles, havn't seen any like that. Would you mind if I post these pictures on my website ? As I said I would like to gather as much information and pictures of marbles and post it there so other collectors have a source for research. Books are nice but the advantage of a homepage is that you can always change things, so I would really collect all kind of information and pictures there, a kind of "Wikipedia" for glass marbles. From what period do you think these marbles are ? Before World War II or after ? Do you think they are from UK ? Probably yes, as I havn't seen any of these in Switzerland and Germany. PLMK or if somebody else has any informations, please jump in. Swissmarble www.glasmurmeln.com @ ALL: it would be nice to get pictures of your favourite marbles of your collections to post on the website !!!

@ Ziggyzora I am not interested in US machine mades, not at all. I collect only handmades (antiques and contemporary). But the homepage is about all kind of glass made marbles and of course US machine mades (and other machine mades) need to have their place in that. It would be nice to have some more pictures and information about both US and non-US machine made marbles to add. And believe me, there IS interest in European marbles, my whole collection of antique marbles consist of European marbles, although it is correct that I bought a lot of them in the US. But I would love to get more information about European machine made marbles too and if it's only to recognize them on flea-markets and antique shops. Swissmarble www.glasmurmeln.com

I received my marbles yesterday, Yipiiieeh ! Not a bargain but worth every penny. Swissmarble www.glasmurmeln.com

Wow Jeroen, thanks for the promotion I would have posted the link sooner or later here on the board too but I first wanted to translate some more parts in English. Well, it is out now and that's fine. Please be welcome on my homepage. There is a part called "Sammler zeigen ihre schönsten Murmeln - collectors show their nicest marbles" where I would like to give every collector the opportunity to show his or her nicest marbles. Please send me some good pics of your nicest marbles, it can be just an ordinary marble which you like very much or a marble others would kill for. And no matter if you are a new or a long-time collector, everybody has the right to show his marbles there. If you want you can stay anonymous, but without telling me otherwise I will post your name, city and country together with your email-address above your marbles so you can come in contact with other collectors. The site is still under construction, I will add more information and pictures daily and I will translate at least part of the information in English. But most of the information is from books anyway, so there are no big secrets. There is a part with American machine made marbles. I do not collect these but I have downloaded a lot of pics from Alan Basinet's auctions just for my database. After he passed away - which motivated me to establish this site as a tribute to him - I asked his ex-wife Cheryl if she thinks it would be ok to use this pictures to display on the homepage. She said it is ok to use them, I think Alan would be pleased to know that many collectors can profit now from his work. If you have other pictures or additional information of American machine made marbles feel free to send them and I will post them too. PLMK if you are happy or unhappy with something. Thanks for your interest ! Ron www.glasmurmeln.com

Hi Steph Funny stuff. My mother tonge is (Swiss-)German, but even I am not able to read this old handwriting. I am pretty sure the calculation on the back of the invoice is German. Thanks for sharing. Ron

I have been collecting since I was a child, but really seriously for about 8 years. But most of my marbles come from the US, my main source is ebay. Greetings Ron

Hi Jeroen encouraged me to make some videos of my collection and put it on youtube. I really like the result and it would be great to see some more collections on videos. So take out your cameras Enjoy ! Ron

I really don't know. A collector told me that the ones from China are even more valueable. But I have no idea to be honest. Ron

It is definately "old". The seller inherited the marble from his grandmother, together with some other old (but not handmade) marbles. So it has to be made before World War II for sure. The pontil is indeed different, as one of you mentioned it is an "inny" (like a small pit). Thanks for your interesting thoughts, I really like these discussions here. Ron