cvdv

He's getting a little better his first few efforts were terrible. Thanks J, tell me some. (lol) C.

Here's one of them. Artikle in an old Dutch paper (1948) of marbletournament that year. The title is, the oldest-, Sam Spooner, and the youngest player, Tony Westbrook, of the tournament. As far as I know, Sam Spooner won this tournament several times. Hope you like it. Cees

Hello all, long time not been here, but saw this topic about shipwreckes and thought maybe you'll like to see this? I've found this marble on the island Terschelling, Northcoast of Holland. It was there in a local museum, but the owner of it gave it to me. It is a 3,3 cm divided core, found in a shipwreck on the bottom of the Northsea, above the island. The name of the ship was: the SS Thasos, from the German Lavant Line. It was built in 1878. In 1895, it left from Hamburg, but sank in a storm. In 1988 the the wreck was found and every year from that time local divers were searching for souvenirs from the wreck. They found a lot of things, including this marble. I know the value is rather poor, but the story behind the marble is, at least for me, from a great value. Cees

Hi J. Youre right, it's not a JC. What it is, I don't know, but it is a beauty. C.

I"ve got a "Victory" bottle like that to, also with a dark (almost black) marble in it. Found it in Holland, at an antique market. Cees

Hi Lloyd, I've gotta strange feeling about that last one, you don't see that combination, solid bullseye with leaves etc. that much. Most of the time it's a combination with an open bullseye, donuteye, spiral etc. I might be wrong of course, I just don't "like" that combination. Cees.

You've got me, yes it is. The name off the site is: www.knikkerwereld.nl Cees

Here are two, found in Holland. Cees.

Hi Steve, Lloyd is right, China's are doing very well at this moment, so this might be the good time to sell? Thanks for showing that lovely China's, they are my fave's. The fake one you show here is almost the same as the one a have, bought in Germany a copple of years ago, also fake, but nice to have in youre collection, if you can't pay a authentic one. Would like to have youre Scenic in my collection, but I'm afraid I can"t pay it. Greetings from Holland and merry Christmas all. Cees.

I found this little lamp in Holland, made by an old plumber. Cees.

The pinwheel indeed is very nice. You don't see that often "normal" pinwheels with two colors, only the fancy types have two or sometimes even three colors. Also the number of the colored leaves/blades is special, three and two. Three and three or four and four etc. is more common. I sure would like this one in my collection. Cees

After my visit in Thüringen, I started to search in the history of the German machine mades, to little is known about them. I already knew that this kind of marbles were made in Lauscha and Illmenau, but there should be more. And little by little I found some. Maybe it's interesting for you, or maybe you already knew this, but, anyway, I want to share some info with you, if you like it or not. About the Transparents I didn't get much more info, the only thing that was new for me that there were several Glasshüttes which had a machine to make these kind of marbles, I don't know if this is true or not, the man who told me this, was rather sure of this?? Later the marble production went to Illmenau, some of the marbles they made there I've showed before in this topic. When I was looking for info about this factory, they told me, that the marbles there were made from glas leftovers, like a kind of end of days. This was told me by a few people who realy could know this, so I think it can be true. I think that also the German sparklers were made in Illmenau on this way. Then The Wirepull: This marble was made by the compagnie Hopf&Hopf from Coburg-Esbach, as far as I know, this was not in East-, but in West-Germany, but very close to Thüringen. From about 1950-1980 the wirepull was (only) made by this compagnie. The owner of the factory invented the machine by himself. Its almost sure that the wirepull was made on the same way as the Illmenaumarbles. First I didn't believe this all, but then they told me that they had some original pricelistings (is this the English word?) from the compagnie and I bought some original bags with wirepulls, made about 1965 from them. There is also a picture of two men (Hopf&Hopf?) made in the factory. I only show one pricelist, but they copied three for me. For now, this is in short time what I found out this last year, I hope it's usefull for some of you, if I find out more, I'll share it again. Cees.

Hi Brian, I've a few marbles with a fascetted pontil, it looks to me that this is handwork. Not by a mill or something. The people over there who sell marbles on eBay to us, they get their marbles by so called "pudlers". These pudlers have a license to look in and under the remaines of some all ready closed Glasshüttes. Some of the marbles they find there have indeed a very large, ugly and strange pontil. Sometimes they look like a little nipple. I,m sure they didn't want to sell them like that, so it looks to me they first removed that. But maybe they didn't and just throwed them away, I don't know. The fact that I've never found a marble like that in Holland or somewhere else. makes me think that either they throwed them away, or they removed the rubbish?But I was talking about fascetting pontils, they said, they never did that. Cees

Well Sue, I think that the area is even smaller as we thought it was. In the villages around Lauscha, there's hardly anything to see that tells you that you are in an area that is famous because of it's glasshüttes. But in Lauscha only the bricks are made of stone, the rest is made of glass. Nearly everything you see there, remindes you on there history and still they make beautifull things off glass, for example in the famous Farbglasshütte, where they also make marbles by hand. The story of the pontils? I don't know, I've told you what they have told me. They didn't spend much time on most of there marbles, polishing or faceting the pontils did not make any sence to them. They spend more time, on marbles that were made as a relationgift. I've seen a 2,5" clout with Lutz, in NM condition, that one was made as relationgift for a important person. Maybe ones the owner will sell it, but then you have to think in thousands of dollars. My wife and children also had a good time there, there are hills and at this time there's a lot of snow. They had so much fun there, she told me that maybe next year she want's to visit Thüringen again. Who am I to say she shouldn't do that? For me it's only 700 km, 7 hours, from my place, for you it isn't that easy I think? Maybe you can manage something with your family in Assen (Jan)? Cees

Yes I did, the German Striped Transparents, were made in Lauscha. There are more marbles made by machines in Lauscha, but the Transparent is the most famous of them, I think that's the reasson why it is showed in the museum. The Germans are proud on there marble's and other glassworks (Weihnachtsschmuck etc.) that's for sure, and I think they should be. About handmades they told me that after Worldwar I, they were still produced in very low produktion, the last handmade marble was made at the beginning of Worldwar II in Germany, 1937-1938. The Germans really hate the term: English color, ore English style, they think it has nothing to do with England, it just that most of these colorfull type's of marbles (late periode's) were transported to England and from there to the US and other country's. They have never faceted any pontil of an glassmarble, that's what they told me, the faceting must have happened in the country's to were they were transported, they think it happened before the marbles came in the store's But who did it and why, they don't know. When the marble was cooled, than it was ready for transporting it. A lot of the China's as we know them were also made in Germany, in a very little village, also in Thüringen, don't know the name, but not in Lauscha. There are only a few, at least they say so, china's painted by only hand, those are the scenic's, the flower and roses and maybe some more. Most of the lined china's, the bull's eyes etc. were painted also by hand, but with the help of a little machine, that turned the marble around. The so called Football marble (or Spotted Dick) is also made in Germany, and not as I always thought, in the UK ore US. The first china's from Germany (early period's) were made around 1830, the last one around 1910-1918 (late period's). There were also a lot of Bennington's there, but also with very high prices. I.m not saying that all this is true, but I've ask a lot off questions there to get something to know about the history of my marbles and this is what they have told me. I think it could be true? Cees.

Here are some pictures, made in and around the village of Lauscha. The handmades are marbles from the museum there. The museum is small, but I'm glad I'm visited it, it's beautifull. The other pictures are machine mades that I've found there, the group are marbles made by the last factory in Germany that made marbles: The Ilmenauer Glasswerken, the marble has a V-pattern on both sides. I've found the other marble in an antik store in Schleusingen, and I think it's also made there, because I've found it in a jar with other old machinemades, transparents, wirepulls etc. What I already thought before I left to Germany became true: There are marbles to find there, I,ve seen some very beautifull examples, but If you want to buy marbles from that area, you better do it by eBay, that's cheaper. They offered me a jar filled with handmades for 10.000 Euro's, that's even more in $. One small Joseph Coat, nothing special,: 80 Euro ( $90). But I did get some interesting info there about the making of hand- and machine made marbles, that was my main reasson of going to Lauscha. I bought 1 solid core (4cm), a very nice one I think for 80 Euro's. Cees.

Thanks Sue, I"ll share the pictures with you all. You could be right, Alan might have some names for me, thanks. Cees

Thanks for the info, I'll do that. Cees.

As a surprise, my wife offered me a short trip to Thüringen, Germany, to make my wish come true: To be at least one time at the place where the German handmades were made. Has anyone of you also visited that area and can give me some info? I only have a few days, so any good tip of where to look or what to "must see" is very welcome. The place where we stay is 30 km from Lauscha (Langenbach). Cees

Hi Ann, you now made the confusion complete. But you are absolutely right, we need a book on European machine-made marbles, or maybe a book on machine-made marbles not made in the US. Sure, I like your CAC's and Vitro's etc. But there's to less information about other marbles made outside the US and as far as I know, there are enough of those to write a book. It doesn't surprise me you didn't find not any seriously marbles here in Holland and Germany during the 70's. Collecting marbles was and is not as populair in Europe as it is in the US. Many times they laughted at me when I asked for old marbles, much people thought I was grazy. With the introduction of internet things change a bit. People could see that the marble was a serious collectors item. The spotted clay marbles you saw were perhaps the dyed pottery (Birdegg), populair here. Cees.

Hi John, jawohl, ich spreche sehr gut Deutsch, and I,m looking forward to that trip. If it's true what you say, I don't know. A fact is, that the Germans are very proud on their handmades. I'll visit the famous glassmuseum there, maybe they can tell me some. I'll take my camera with me and I'll try to get some info and pictures, witch I will share of course. Cees.

Hi John, even knowing that most of my marbles came from France, I still can't (don't) believe they were made there. I think Germany, but of course I'm not sure. In January 2006, I'm going to Germany (Lauscha) for a short vacation, I'll see if I can find some of these marbles in that area and get some information about them. Cees.

A very nice one John, I like the colors. What I like to know is: what is the source of the foreign sparklers you all found there in the US, is there also a link to Europe and maybe to France or Germany. If I read the item of Robert Block in Marble Mania and knowing that most of my marbles came from France, than you might think that they were made in France? Cees

Yes that's a type of wire pull, the European one, made in Germany, they are rather common here. Cees

Hi Gary, I wish those were orange and white, they are red and white, the flashlight made them look orange, I'm sorry. Cees.