spara50

Recently found this 1923 Science de Voyages paper from France. It has a nice article on making what I think are clay marbles. I have translated the captions next to the images using Google translate. I haven't had time to do the entire article. Top Picture of Woman Ball sorting before staining. Forced to spend in a cramped hallway that their household is, the ball crooked or missing fragment which are eliminated by hand prior to color. Bottom Picture of Equipment The coloring of the balls Placed on the lower tray, the balls will be rolled at high speed by the upper plate in contact with a mixture of sulfur and aniline color that penetrates the stone. Page 2 Top Picture Overview of a workshop producing Ball On the left, the workbook automatically stone cubes. In the center, rolling plateaus in transforming these cubes spheres. Right, the coloring device. Center Picture The classification of cubes. By hopper fed the shovel, the cubes get into the cylinder openwork holes whose diameter gradually increases until the output. Progressing thanks to the rotary motion of the cylinder, the cubes of the cross as it comes in or the size of the holes permits. Each box therefore does not receive as cubes of same dimensions. Bottom Picture The breaking of cubic blocks. The picture shows the typical shape of the double hammer with which, thanks to a large tart eye and wrist, the worker shall debit the blocks into small cubes about 2 inches square. Top Picture Counting before packaging. Of plateaus, twenty parallel lines, are ten row are housed quickly pours ball loose on them. The other slide at the slightest movement, and thus obtained, in less time than it takes to say, two hundred balls counted in any security. Feel free to translate the rest if you want to! Craig

Great boxes....the blue greens are awesome.

RIP Art, you made marbles shows a blast. Always looked forward to his stories, practical jokes and the famous Bull Shitter Award Ribbon he wore. I bought a bunch of great boxes and marbles from him over the years and his presence will be dearly missed. Bill Bass' room will be a much quieter place without him. Tough month in the marble world.... Craig

Yes, Vitro for sure. I have had half a dozen or so over the years collecting Vitro. They are very hard to find, don't usually bring big money, but very nice marbles. Craig

Galen, no doubt. I had started putting the common ones that don't swirl much in my dollar bin. Ahh, heck they will still be in there. Craig

Just a small clarification about the KC Show. There are TWO marble shows during the same weekend. One show is Marble Crazy at Moon Marble Co. with contemporary artists exclusively that is put on by Bruce Breslow and Linda from Moon Marble. The second show running consecutively is put on by the Kansas City Marble Collectors Club and is predominantly vintage. Scott McBride, Charles and others run this show. Bruce and some of the artists do attend the KC Marble Club show on Sunday. Both Moon and KC Marble club put on one of the best combined shows in the country. It is truly unique. Many don't realize this and credit Bruce with both shows. Just to give credit where credit is due. Craig

Marble mail today. 3/4" Peltier Golden Rebel out of the wild. Really nice all the way around! Any other Golden Rebels to share out there? Craig

Thanks to everyone. Sissy I have a few of Freds marbles and they are beautiful. These are all the real deal. Bill, those are awesome! But you need to tell everyone the size. Those aren't 5/8" marbles! They are huge. JVV, stunning set. Thanks for sharing. Craig

Pics of my lutz marbles. Just for fun. Enjoy! Craig

In Firefox I use a free add-on called FireShot. It adds an icon in your right click pop up menu and allows you to select an area and save it as a JPG. It is a screen grabber program but you don't have to capture the entire screen. Works great. Go to the addon website and search for it.

"The best eyes" just happen to belong to 3 or 4 people that benefited the most from selling these marbles to the tune of 10's of thousands of dollars. I say follow the money for the true answer to this debate. It always comes down to that in the end.

Wow...didn't know he was sick. Always looked forward to him calling me 'dude'. RIP

@Speed Racer - "But then again, these are the Shamrock examples that went explicitly into boxes with no ambiguity or secrecy. Is there another (better) maker causing a true alarm? A true forger that even the likes of Galen is afraid of? Is that what this is all about? " That's the real issue. Shamrock has been upfront by NOT using CA colors on purpose and adding an etched gold shamrock to the marbles. Has there been someone that has not been upfront in the past? I personally think some of the exotics are real, however $10 marbles are not usually faked, $1000 marbles may be more of an incentive. Also, I have seen well seasoned collectors buy and sell the Shamrocks as CA's both on eBay and at shows paying top dollar. There are a few collectors that are better versed in CA and what to look for, but only a few. I'm with Duffy, if the method of selling them had been out in the open with no back room dealings this would not even be an issue. This is just my opinion that has absolutely NO backing or proof. So I am not looking to start an argument!

Here are my Shamrock exotics. The only kind I can afford. If you are one who argues that they can't be made today, these will change your mind.

I thought it looked like the German pieces from Lauscha. They make the hollow ornaments that look exactly like that. Just keep it out of your bedroom, I wouldn't want that staring at me all night. Craig

More: Asbury Park N.J. Nationals - shows girl and boy winner. George Wentz from West Virginia. Clip Tinsley Green 1946 - British Newsreels Clip Two National Champ 1941 - British Newsreels Clip Three British 1953 Clip 4 Type in marbles in the search on this site. Tons of videos of playing marbles. Clips More tourney clips: Clip 5 A few more clips on this site as well. Clips

Here are a few links with movies that contain clips: At 2:50 min marker...poem and kids shooting marbles 1931 One At 13:00 min mark...VFW tournament footage. Robert Altman film from Kansas City 1955 Two At very beginning kids shooting marbles for a few seconds. 1936 Three I also have footage from the 1965 Nationals in Wildwood N.J. from the winner. It is in a DVD documentary I made about him and was shown in Amana in 2010. Approx. 20 mins. The video is 5 or 6 minutes. Craig

For anyone that missed this weeks episode of Cake Boss, they made a birthday cake for a 101 year old man who was the New Jersey marble champ in 1920. They show a newspaper clipping of him. I think his nickname was 'Freckles'. Here is a link to a preview. At about 1:35 left to go you can see the cake with the marbles on top. Cake Boss Craig

These boxes were backfilled after a large find of NLR's a few years back. Craig

I have quite a bit of Houze glass items, but have only seen the schooner in an original Houze glass advertisement. It was only by itself with no ship or lamp parts attached, just a bowl type of item. Awesome piece! Craig

Here is a box I used to own, just as I found it at an auction in the middle of Kansas. Had not been touched as far as I know. Salesmans sample box with prima agates. Craig

At Amana I picked up these from contemporary marble maker Chris Robinson. He used Akro Agate Indian Blanket cullet to make these. Wow! (no they aren't signed) About 1" diameter on the larger ones. Craig

If it's not Ray Laubs then I don't know. It looks a bit older with some wear. I have watched it for a few weeks, it is kinda neat in a folkart way.

It was a good show. More than a few of the regulars were missing. Many due to age and health issues it seemed. But overall sales were strong, always lot's of great marbles and it's always great to see everyone. The hotel had a long list of rules handed out at check in, no signs, no more than 5 people in a room, and on and on. Security guard was roaming the halls. You know how unruly all of us old marble guys are. LOL...they have become really unfriendly at the hotel and was time for a move. Charles is correct, next year the show will be at the Marriott in Coralville near Iowa City, about 20 miles further east. Unfortunately, because of poor negotiating IMO room rates will remain the same. It is a highrise and we will be on multiple floors. Should be more public though, maybe it will get collectors excited again to come to this show. Moving a show can be really good or really bad, hard to say right now. Craig

My understanding is you have to sell $20k or more and have 200 transactions or more. Not one or the other, both criteria must be met to have them issue a 1099. Craig