SequoiaBET

A transitional is a hand gathered marble that is machine roller finished. The "transition" from fully hand made to fully machine made marbles. Early US and Japanese (and others countries?) companies made them in the early 1900's. They don't have to have a tail. And yes, there were both transitional and fully machine made slags. They are among the earliest of machine made marbles.

From one of their "tank washes" maybe? Hard to get a good picture of. The last 2 pics are backlit to show the transparency. It's very dark in hand, but under bright light you can see it is a transparent tealish base glass with what I have seen called 'purple oxblood'. (It's a JABO thing. I'm not sure how widely recognized/accepted that description is. I should start a separate discussion on that to see what others know/think.) Anyway, this one is 19/32 (.59) inches with some green UV in the clear glass.

It has annealing fractures and is 2/3 (.66) inches

The pattern in the colored glass reminds me of the Vacor sparkler types in Stephen Bahr's recent videos. But I don't know about all the bubbles in the clear base glass. I think Vacor usually has cleaner clear glass, but I'm not sure on that.

Thanks Al!

I got them ID'd elsewhere. Ravenswood and Alley St. Mary's, for anyone who is curious.

Thanks Al. So what makes these pinchers? Is it the pinched look of the glass at the poles?

Thanks for the input on "vintage" folks. I'd welcome others thoughts too. I have heard the 20 years or older = vintage, but that means JABO contract runs are 2 years away from being vintage, let alone the classics that already are well over 20 years. I agree with you Fire, I personally can't call those vintage (and I love JABO's). And maybe it's just my personal taste (or age!), but the marbles being made in the 80' and 90's don't seem vintage to me either. Are there other terms that marble collectors use specifically to denote eras of marbles? I think of things like "Antique German" to represent the old (German) handmades and "transitionals" for the hand-gathered and machine rounded marbles made in many countries. But what about after that? The quality and type of marble being made by CAC or Akro is very different from a 1990's Imperial or Marble King- yet they are all "vintage machine made" now? There are definitely different stages and qualities to marble history in the last 100 years. Maybe the answer is that broad categories aren't that helpful, while specifics about a marble are. Just thinking out loud and trying to better understand some of the terms I hear being used...

Very interesting! Thanks so much for posting this.

What is the generally accepted cut off date between "vintage" and "modern" marbles? I always think around 1970- is that accurate? And does this apply to foreign made marbles as well? I know it can be hard to pin down the exact date any marble was made so there is a gray zone here. Also, what is an "Asian Pincher" marble? Does it refer to marbles where the poles are pinched together as you see in the so called "Asian Bomber" types? Or is it something else entirely?

Here is another one with better pics to help with ID. It's 37/64 (.57) with strong green UV. (I still am having a hard time getting good pics of the UV. Maybe it's my light? I'm using a cheap flashlight kind like a bouncer at the club door would use.)

Here is the second one. It has much more transparency when backlit as seen in the last pics. it is also 5/8"

I posted this one and my next post to come previously and @Fire1981 and @William requested better pics. I got a new camera and here are some much better pics. Hope they help with the ID. Anyone else can jump in too- all help is welcome. This one is 5/8 inch with the slightest bit of translucency in the red glass as seen in the last pic.

x2 JABO. Pics are blurry and size info would help too, but first one is JABO and second one is likely too.

Those are nice! I remember that it was a lot of fun making them. I know when the clay is old or it's cold outside, you really have to work it to get it nice and malleable. You can use some of the same techniques in clay that they do in glass- particularly cane making. The possibilities are nearly endless. I remember seeing some really amazing clay marbles on line. If I recall correctly, Marlow Peterson made quite a few of them too.

Nice ones there, Nickel! Funny you posted this, I just happened to find some I made about 10 years ago when my wife was doing Fimo stuff. I was just playing around one afternoon and made this batch. I had totally forgot about them until I found them again a couple of days ago. Here's the pics- one with flash and one without.

Bumping to the top. Any thoughts are welcome. Thanks!

They are all in the .46 to .50 inch range.

They definitely made peewees during that time. Here are a couple of pics of ones I have. I believe these are all JABO, but I'm 100% on that. There are definitely some butt cracks. Let me know it you want some more detailed pics and I can do that.

Cool I got some that were named by Dave himself! And nice provenance with that bag @Nantucketdink Thanks for the help!

Those are my 2 guesses. I couldn't pick one... left one is 19/32 (.59) inches with some yellow UV in the off shade of white. The right one is 35/64 (.54) with no UV.

I think the green and white one is Heaton. I see an ear in pic 1 and a backside blip of color in the last pic. It's 19/32 (.60) inches with no UV. I don't know what the other one is. It's 39/64 (.61) no UV.

One is 3/4 inch and one is just under at .72. No UV. The pattern and glass scream JABO to me, even a bit of a butt crack in the second one. But the colors? Not an investor run that I'm aware of.

I agree- I've learned so much here. All the help is much appreciated!

Thanks Akro. The pics are fairly accurate- the marbles are a dark black with just the light wispy white. Not too exciting.