Hello Bob,
I am an collector from Holland, and I like your idea very much! I am collecting for a short time only and don't have any marble that will be worthy for the book. The funny thing was that I was thinking of putting up a website to show the most beautiful marbles there are. No information about who owns them, or the value, just to show what great marbles there are.
Beside collecting old marbles, my other great hobby are monumental trees, or ancient trees. www.monumentaltrees.eu. In 2006 my book about the oldest and biggest trees in Europe was published. I spoke with a lot of people about which trees should be in the book? What are the greatest trees. Still this was very much my choice, because I have favorite trees. And after the book what published new information about other giant trees came to me, so in my case my book will be never a book of the greatest trees in Europe. But in my oppinion it is the best there is!
An other example is the book Domesday book of mammoth pike. This was published in 1980 or so. At that time I was a fanatic pike angler. In this book the 230 biggest pikes that were caught, mainly in Europe were described. But in the years after many other bigger pikes than there were in the list were caught. So in 2005 he published a new edition.
I know this kind of book would be difficult to give it a sequel as you described, but maybe you can connect it with a website and competition. For example: Let people grade a marble from 1-10, and the marbles with the highest average should be in the book. Combine it with the minimum requirement that a marble should have at least 50 votes or so. In this way a marble that is bring get a change to be in top of the list. When in a period of time there are a lot of new better marbles, this may be the moment to make a new edition of the book. Of course this method will take more time. But people who regulary visit such a website might be more interested in the book, as they have the felling they actually have influence in the outcome of which marbles are the greatest.
This is just a thought of how it can be done.
What makes a marble great. Exactly the things you describe. And perhaps condition is the most important. Read this article:http://www.marblesgalore.com/
Of course a combination of rarity, condition, color, design and size wil be a bonus, in the case that 1+1 is not 2 but 3.
My only other suggestion would be to make two books. One with handmade marbles, and one with machine made marbles.
I hope my reaction can help you a little. I look forward to such a book from you.
Best regards,
Jeroen
