crashbelt

Just can't get enough Josephs and Skins!!!

Here's a cloth bag of simple lined unglazed chinas this week.

I think Latticinos are under-appreciated sometimes because so many were made. These are great!!

Wow that's a beautiful display of handmades.

One of my favourite solitaire marble sets has a new board. The marbles are 25-27mm faceted pontil green micas I bought years ago with a non-original board that was a bit undersized for 1"+ marbles.. I've just found this very fine board stamped E Spurin 37 New Bond Street London. Spurin was a maker/retailer operating from this top London shopping street around 1850-1870. So the faceted micas dating from a similar period are a perfect match for the board. If this is all a bit too nerdy please just enjoy the pic!!!

Wow Chad - nice theme and great examples!!

Since you asked Chad the boards are a bit smaller than 6"x7". The one in the post is about 5 5/8" square and the swirls are pee wees. Then I have 3 more original sets which are rectangular at c. 6 1/2" x5 1/2". The mibs on those are pee wee micas, and just over pee wee sized swirls and micas. I have 3 more 'spare' boards - 2 in the c.6 1/2" x 5 1/2" size and one about 5 5/8" square. Thanks for prompting me to get measuring! These boards were relatively common in the UK, usually missing the marbles of course. I have wondered whether FW Ayres only sold these as parts of compendium games sets or if they sold some separately. Here's a picture of the reverse side which all 7 of mine have.

I thought it might be good this week to show this square board and pee wee swirls in its Victorian FW Ayres Games Compendium. The board fits neatly into the wooden box - the second pic shows more games under the board when its packed away. Lock and key still work which is cool. I have several of these small square/rectangular boards (all with fox and geese on the reverse side) and presume they all came from Compendium sets?

Sold for $579 with 3 bidders over $550, all fairly regular marble buyers on Ebay!! If its real that's a steal. I'd want a top expert on handmades to examine it before dropping big money. My hunch is that its a well made reproduction and the buyer has taken a chance on it! You would expect a genuine red blizzard micas that size be sold through a reputable auction house.

I collect mainly old handmades and solitaire boards. But there's a business in Devon in SW England that may be the only contemporary maker in the UK. Its Teign Valley Glass, which runs an attraction called the House of Marbles in Bovey Tracey. The marbles can't compare with the amazing US contemporary makers but I buy a few because they're made over here. Here's a selection of their 1.5" marbles.

Thanks for posting this Chad - I've never seen a set made for the German domestic market. I bought quite a lot from Germany over the years and read much of the research and that's the first I've seen of one, so they must have been made in far smaller numbers than sets for the English market. As you see I have quite a few surviving English boxes! Great to learn something new, although I agree the Ebay pricing seems very optimistic. I have this similar set (unboxed) on a nicer mahogany board, and the onions are more blue over white.

Beautiful Josephs Chad and I'm a sucker for a big mica!

Here's some original boxes from my solitaire collection. Chad Valley, Glevum, Gibson, Ayres, Jaques and WS Spear I think. Always nice to have them with original sets even if tatty! Some have survived 100-150 years.

Please forgive a quick digression, but I've been scratching my head as to where I know your avatar from akroorka! Just opened Everett Grist's 1992 book Antique and Collectible Marbles and there on P81 is the Akro Agate gift box with 'your' great image!! I bet everyone else here knows this already but I liked finding it.

Here's a nice swirl set on a fruitwood board.

My hunch is you just got 3 very nice untouched Josephs for a very good price. Hope I'm right!!

A 30 year addiction Chad - I might need help!!!

Stunning Joseph Chad!!

Here's The Garrison Game, Nine Mens Morris (aka Merelles) and the Star Puzzle. All early/mid-Victorian.

I started collecting in the era when handmade Germans were dominant. So back then the books by Paul Baumann, Stan Block and Everett Grist were the best guides. I had to import them from the US of course. Baumann remains my favourite. Any values are of course completely outdated. Good luck if you can find those books now - presumably they're mostly out of print.

Here's a set of 21mm clear micas........

Love Joseph's with deliberate pattern of colours rather than the usual more random design. Beautiful examples Chad and great size too.

The seller has 27 very interesting early handmades, all 26mm-29mm for sale, and seems not to be a regular marble seller. I strongly suspect this is the remains of an early solitaire board - broken up previously, or for the purposes of this sale. Certainly the seller has no idea about describing the listings!!! I used often to find groups of 25-33 handmades for sale (either as a group or one by one) in the UK. This seller's 27 similarly sized handmades fits that pattern. Must have been one heck of a solitaire set!!!!

Here's a nice bright set of swirls - strong colours in clear glass, ground pontils on a plain mahogany board. So later period probably. So nothing unusual about this set - I just really like it!!!

They appear to be cemented on in some way - not sure what that indicates regarding age?