jeroen

Do you have an example of such very good remelts? As I mostly buy marbles without seeing them in person, I would like to see what they look like, so I can learn from it, and others too.

Bob, Can you post the photos of the remelts

I thought that the many small surface lines and thousands of tiny air bubbles are signs of remelting, like this example. The air bubbles on the single pontil seems different, but it is hard to tell

And a few more.... But there must be better ones out there, show them ;-)

I would like to see photos of what you think is the most beautiful antique German handmade marble ever. Post any photo you like. Perhaps you have photos of a beauty you have seen on internet long ago, or at a marble show. Here are some examples.

The row I pointed out with the arrow? I does not look suspicious to me. Hansel, do you think it was formed by reheating or something else?

scratch. These would probably disappear after polishing. And the pontil looks ok also, although the photo is not sharp.

small scratches

I think the surface is original. I do see some small scratches and flea bites. see the photos I enhanced in photoshop a little.

it is 2-3/16 inch.

my best one

A nice marble, but $8600 seems very high to me, or am I missing something?

AND THE THIRD

I HAVE 3 ONIONSKINS OVER 2-1/2 INCH JEROEN

Dear collectors, I have a very nice lightning strike marble for sale on ebay. http://www.ebay.com/itm/BEAUTIFUL-AND-RARE-LIGHTNING-STRIKE-MARBLE-IN-MINT-CONDITION-/321509711500?pt=Marbles&hash=item4adb78de8c Happy bidding! Jeroen

I have one for sale. It is a hair under 1-11/16 inch, and in mint 9.7 condition. I am asking $2000 for it. So if someone is interested let me know

What is the status of the 100 greatest marbles book?

Is this the same one? http://www.ebay.com/itm/Smithsonian-Magazine-As-Playthings-They-Are-Marbles-April-1988-050614R1-/251524791278?pt=Magazines&hash=item3a900bbbee

Hello, Has anyone of you seen such marbles before? What age could they have, and where were they made? Jeroen

Hi Clyde, I think there are many very nice lutz marbles, but I can't remember ever seen one with a faceted pontil. So I don't think they kept putting facted pontil on special marbles all to the end. No facted pontils on joseph coats and clambrots also, as far as I have seen. But it might be different with the facted pontils than what I think of course. Jeroen

Hi Cees, You are right, and that is what is interesting about the old handmade marbles. Learn new things and enjoy the beauty of them. Jeroen

Hi Hansel, No evidence, just a feeling I have. Perhaps we can call it pontil evolution. The old single pontil transitional marbles, all have very smooth faceted pontils. At least all the transitionals I have seen have very nice finished pontills. Sometimes they are hard to find. I think in the early times these transitional marbles had to compete with the handmade agate marbles. Those marbles have an entirely smooth surface. The marble makers probably told the people on the large grounding wheels to make the rough pontils very smooth. I do have several handmade marbles with facted pontils (mostly smaller ones) that have facted pontil with only one or two facets. As if they only pushed the rough pontil one of two times against the grounding wheel. Often some of the roughness remains. Perhaps this quick finish was done, because the competition between the glass marble makers became stronger, and the marbles had to produced cheaper. When they in the end had to compete with the first machine made marbles, the glass marble makers did not ground the rough pontills any more. It was too expensive. Now this is of course just all speculative what I write here, but in my opinion it makes sense. So why do I think my blue core marble is of the early period? The first transitional marbles I had to compete with the hand faceted agate marbles. The appearance of these marbles resembles the agate marbles. Because glass could be formed into much more variety, I think they started to experiment with new designs. The blue core marble comes from England, and a lot of strange marbles comes from England. I believe the Germans started to export their marbles to England before the USA. The faceted pontil on my blue core marble is made of many facets. I think I can count about 15 or so. Non of the original roughness is left. I have several large handmade marbles with faceted pontils, but still some roughness is visible. So this is why I think my blue core marble is from the very first period of hand making glass marbles, after the invention of the marble scissors in 1850? (1849) Of course this is all speculative, but I think that my thinking has some logic in it. I would love to hear other ideas or suggestions. For sure I am not the only one who ever thought this over. I also think that mica panel onionskins have evolved from blizzard mica onionskins. Why? There is often so many mica that the colored glass is hardly visible. To create panels makes the core visible, and the marble gets more attractive. Again just a though from me. Jeroen

Yes, you probably have buckets full of this kind of marble. Everything I post is normal in your eyes, or not special. You must have an amazing collection. Well if this is not a RARE marble...... Can anyone post a picture of a similar marble? And if someone is interested in buying or trade this blue core marble, just let me know. Jeroen

Looks like a very common marble to me. I had a lot of those in my youth.

I am almost sure they are not old, but very new. But most of these Bulgarian marbles look nice, and if they only cost a few $$ why not buy them. Jeroen