Here's a pee wee swirls set from a FH Ayres games compendium. Having seen quite a few of these, it seems that Ayres went with either swirls or micas for their compendiums. Interested if anyone has seen other marble types on these boards.
Here's where my handmade marble addiction started! Two of the German swirls from a £20 jar bought from a vintage toy shop in Edinburgh in 1991. 1" orange latt and 1 1/4" divided core with latt strands.
Thank you for your comments Ric. We don't have marble collector communities or marble shows in the UK, so its been a pleasure to show my collection online to such knowledgeable appreciative collectors, and learn so much from yourselves.
Here's my examples of a Victorian board game called Nine Mens Morris, or sometimes Merelles or The Mill. I've added the marbles to the boards to the boards - I've never found a set that looks original. I can't identify makers either although some have characteristics of Ayres and Jaques. But its good to have less common boards among all the solitaire sets!!
I started in the early 1990s Ric, avidly looking for original solitaire boards and loose marbles in the UK for maybe 20 years. Slowed up since then as I have managed to get examples of the main types of board and they became much harder to find in the UK. I'm really lucky to have started collecting when I did!!
As Chad has started this week with 2 great banded transparents, here's a cute little boxed set by HP Gibson. 6" diameter board and 14mm mibs. I'm pretty sure this is early 20th Century.