hdesousa

No idea what the 'grill marks' could be from. Several blocks of melted marbles appeared at shows and on eBay at the same time, of various sizes. In some, you could tell they had been mint marbles, and pretty nice ones, but I don't remember seeing any Greiners.

This melted block of marbles was bought from Bert Cohen in 2011. Story goes it was recovered from the great Chicago fire of 1871. I have a smaller block hiding somewhere, with better marbles, and I've seen others. Surface looks dusty and cloudy - that's from the fire.

Bought from Stan Block in 2000. Looks just like a common German limestone marble, except it has a fossil. I was told they come up every now and then, but I've never seen another.

Interesting. Are the marbles glazed? If not, they did not need any kind of support as the surface was in no danger of sticking to the kiln floor. No idea what made those holes.

Pretty sure the benningtons you're describing were made in Germany. (not my pic)

Not sure what you mean by "Benington type US" marbles.

Very nice (and unusual!).

That's a nice marble! Have not heard of metal pins being used to hold up marbles in a kiln; I know little about the process but can't see why it would not work in a low temperature firing. AFAIK, American Marble and Toy did not use stilts. They had ceramic plates with indentations to hold their marbles. This fragment (not the marbles) was excavated at their site in Akron, OH.

These marbles were all recovered from "The Marble Wreck" They all have stilt marks! How many of your glazed ceramic marbles have stilt marks?

Benningtons were glazed and fired together, like a bunch of grapes I suppose, so that when they were pulled apart after the firing, "eyes" were created where they touched each other. Some marble however, were fired after being placed on a stilt - a three pointed ceramic holder. Here are a couple rejects where the glaze ran over and the marble could not be separated from its stilt.

You nailed it. Here's what it looks like after a bath:

Yes, that is an intriguing marble. I asked for more pics and will post them below. He's got several of them. Might just be surface dirt that makes them look special. I'll request more pics after a soapy bubble bath.

The "spotted dick" marbles have been discussed here, over 12 years ago. Unfortunately, many of the links no longer work: I've picked them up as surface finds at a razed ceramic marble factory in Thuringia, Germany but have seen large groups come out of England, and was told they were also manufactured there. There are at least two ways the spots were applied - with a paintbrush and also with small lumps of black clay pressed into the surface of the marble before the body dried.

One of the most interesting marbles here is the one on the far left. A variegated clay marble - possibly a precursor to what we call "line crockery" or jasper - that is probably more accurately described as agateware. Here's how agateware is made - in this case for a tea pot, but you can imagine marbles being formed from the layers of colored clay. Start at about 3 minutes:

Mick Turton posted these marbles on a facebook antique marbles group earlier today. I'm posting the picture here with his permission, in the hope of getting him some good, verifiable information. Mick has been 'putting away' marbles in his antiques business for over 30 years but has no clue of what he's accumulated. Some of these marbles are interesting enough to discuss here, without risking anyone deleting posts with key references to the source of information.

Yes. I've had it for probably 30 years, and she's had it for a lot longer. I think larger German agates were made for 'cabinet pieces', not toys, just as the exceptionally nice large glass swirls were not meant to be played with. Can't put my finger on it right now, but I do have bits of an 1800's catalog from the H.H.Tammen Curio Company of Denver, CO which illustrates lots of mineral pieces, including these large agate spheres, sold as cabinet pieces.

Yes, it's faceted. Taken with a low end i-phone. I guess they must have a very small aperture. Do they even describe aperture in terms of f-stop on smart phones?

I'll try to get a better pic.

If posting on the marble ID site is preferred, please move. Mike Turton has been putting marbles aside for 30 years and would like to know something about them. Here's a typical group he's amassed. I know almost nothing about machine made glass marbles.:

Neat way of increasing depth of focus! I was wondering how you managed to get so many marbles in such good focus when I can't even get one. (3.75")