hdesousa

Pollution to you may be vital historical information to someone else. Maybe M. Gropper also sold Akro, and this had been in fact an Akro sampler at the end of it's useful life. Then again, could just be pollution. But I can give you an example where an expert messed up a nice box with only good intentions. The original Marble Mania has a small Akro "coffin" box containing solid light blue marbles. Probably one of the first Akro boxes out of Clarksburg, when Akro was still using MFC marbles in their boxes. When Roger Hardy acquired that box, before he knew Akro bought and resold MFC marbles and even before most people knew MFC made opaques, he replaced and discarded a graduated set of solid light blue marbles for red slags.

What do you mean "What happened to this one?". It's still as it was when your pics were taken. Now give us your learned and respected opinion on the one I pictured, before you're accused of hijacking the thread.

I bought it from collectors some 25 years ago. I'm pretty sure the Akro label was there when they 'found' it. I think the inside label says 'comics 80 c m' .

The price list on the back appears to be for Peltier marbles. National Onyx Marbles (Ass.7 colors), Milkie Agates, Cerise Red Agates, and Prima Agates But the box contains Akros.

No pink here. Just blue and brown (for the girls?).

The largest one is 13/16". Left twist swirls are very uncommon. Less than one in a thousand I would guess.

Stefan, Here are 3 left twist swirls for you. Not the best pics, but ....

Pink still is a color for men: https://www.google.com/search?q=pink+italian+cycling&client=firefox-a&hs=VNB&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&channel=sb&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=3rAxU42uD6GN0AGtzYCwDA&ved=0CEoQsAQ&biw=1280&bih=921 http://www.corbisimages.com/stock-photo/rights-managed/42-18427040/billboard-on-sunset-strip-for-hustler-magazine

Darn if I know what MFC meant by a caster ball in 1917, but here's a 1911 patent for a caster, awarded to Abraham Oppy of Kansas City. A caster ball probably fit into the caster. Interesting about being "made to order". http://books.google.com/books?id=8v5KL60zQhgC&pg=PA953&lpg=PA953&dq=patent+caster+ball&source=bl&ots=dWw5YOsVqM&sig=FaUtmcWhVGKMYKkHnLwXqtnrDDM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=0rkwU_SjLai10AHv_IHABw&ved=0CH8Q6AEwCw#v=onepage&q=%20caster%20ball%20christensen&f=false

Very nice! Are these about 1 1/2"?

Left hand twists in an antique German swirl are rare. Less than 1:1000 I would guess. But in an onionskin, they are much more common. Perhaps as common as 1:5? (just a guess) No idea why.

This is from the MFC booklet. It says "Illustration shows actual sizes", but the size of the picture depends on the size of the screen you're looking at. If we assume No. 6 is 1" diameter, No. 10 is about 1.6 inches diameter.

I asked David Allaway, a marble collector and amateur glass historian, these questions. His detailed answer is below.(with his permission) Hi David,Where can I find verification about the German opaque colors (other than white or yellow) being post 1900?Also, do you know the component of glass that makes it opaque?There's been some discussion about the black lined color splotches on the brightly colored German clowns being a reaction of the color with selenium in white glass. regards,Hansel Hansel, I don’t have any references, just personal observation. From the beginning of my marble collecting, I always noted that most antique glass marbles have only opaque white and opaque yellow. These are cleverly combined with transparent red, transparent blue and transparent green. The threads in threaded glass marbles are opaque white and opaque yellow, and sometimes these are overlaid with transparent red, transparent blue, or transparent green. Similarly, the cores of divided-core or solid-core marbles are opaque white or opaque yellow, or both, often overlaid with transparent red, transparent blue, and/or transparent green. The same is also true of “Onionskins” which have a base coating of opaque white or opaque yellow, or segments of each, with an overlay of chunks or streaks of transparent red, transparent blue, and/or transparent green. These are what I think of as “classic” transparent swirls and onionskins, and comprise the vast majority of antique handmade glass marbles. This includes most large swirls and examples with ground (faceted) pontils, and can be classified as early-mid period. The exceptions to the above, using collector names, are the so-called “Bristol” or “English swirls”, “Lutz” marbles, and opaque marbles including “Opaques”, “Indians” and “Clambroths.” These have a wider variety of opaque colors (red-orange, turquoise, pale green, etc.) which are unknown in earlier swirl marbles. From catalogs, the Lutz marbles date to approximately 1910-1914. The so-called English swirls, in addition to their vivid opaque colors, are noted for the clarity of the glass, and lack of impurities. This would be the result of more modern furnaces using natural gas, or recirculating coal gas, as opposed to wood-fired or less-sophisticated coal furnaces. The newer furnaces, increasingly in use after 1900, would produce much higher temperatures, and would force bubbles and impurities from the glass, and introduce less soot and ash, resulting in much clearer glass. The clearer glass, and the use of opaque colors other than white and yellow, seem to go hand-in-hand. I believe that the “English” swirls were produced in Germany, but dominated the English retail market post-World War I, after the U.S. had largely converted to domestically-produced machine-made marbles. I would classify those marbles using a variety of opaque colors, and impurity-free transparent glass, as being late-period. The primary ions used to produce opaque glass are: Tin, Antimony, or Arsenic. Looking at the periodic table, Germanium might have worked as well, but was undoubtedly too rare and expensive. An intriguing question is where the colored glass came from. Because it was mostly in threads, it is possible that they were imported from Venice, as it still is. A clue can be seen in close examination of Lutz marbles, where the bands are composed of two or more individual threads. The colored solid cores are composed of multiple rows of colored threads, giving a washboard appearance. It is possible that the introduction of clearer base glass (locally-produced) occurred in the same general time frame as the availability of a wider variety of opaque colored rods. The uniformity of the opaque colors seen in Lutz, Indian and Clambroth marbles, for example, would indicate that these colors were not locally-made in random batches, but were sourced from a wholesale supplier of opaque glass rods, with standard catalog colors, and subject to good quality control. Regards, Dave

Very nice. The evaluation/identification service probably got it right. Except they did not mention the agateware which may be a veneer. Their date and place of manufacture is probably based on the agateware. Any authority I've asked about these things usually say the same thing: "probably Staffordshire late 19th century" although it could well be earlier. Not much interest amongst ceramic historians on studying children's toys, unfortunately. This article gives some information on agateware. www.michelleericksonceramics.com/pdf/CiA2003_Erickson&Hunter.pdf‎

These are "marble marbles" or blood alleys, made from the 1700s to perhaps 1850. At one time they were prized most highly of all marbles by marble players.

In an earlier post I had said the best (i.e. easiest) definition of a clown is a marble in which the colors are lined in black. Enough collectors told me they had not heard that definition before, so I asked the guy who I'd thought came up with it, but apparently I mistook what he'd said. From what I can gather, a clown is supposed to have many splotches of different colors.(As Galen puts it, "marbles with large rounded color spots that did not stretch pole to pole") The rarer ones have some colors lined in what looks like black. That's it. (Obviously the black is an incidental reaction between two colors, but it does seem to make the marble more valuable) Sorry for the confusion.

I can imagine a bullseye on a carpetball that the boy is holding, and agree that the kid is most likely dead. Perhaps that's why his cheeks are colored, in addition to the reasons you've given, especially when compared to the post-mortem photos here: (Warning, post mortem means dead. And in this case, it's death with dignity.) http://io9.com/the-strangest-tradition-of-the-victorian-era-post-mort-472772709

That's an interesting rattle! Do you think this is a rattle as well, or a sulphide marble?

Watches were sometimes awarded to marble champs!

Thanks guys. Just wanted a second opinion that it looks like a marble of sorts. I thought it looked more like a blemished apple, with the stem at around 2 o'clock.

Thanks. Nice paperweight!

What's murine?