ManofKent

They're gorgeous

Useful thanks. I do wonder though whether the size of a marble has an impact on how well defined the lines / bands can be. Most of the Joseph Coats appear to be 20mm plus (unless the pontils are truly tiny). It's been an interesting discussion - thanks to all.

Thanks both - are there any defining features for Alley swirls? Ravenswood makes me think of Japanese brush painting (along time since I've tried it) - almost 'flicks' between curves and lines

I thought the cage style was earlier

Three pee-wee (10mm) Tiger's eyes from a French auction lot - machine ground but probably some age to them based on the rest of the lot - fun little things even if relatively modern:

A 100 count bag of cats eyes arrived through the post in the week. Unfortunately the seam had split somewhere crossing the Atlantic. Still a good opportunity to examine them in more detail. These are the 'later' vaned type rather than the cages of 'filaments'. Interestingly both bags use the same style headers (like the all reds above but blue text)- whether this was a cross over period or whether both types were made simultaneously I don't know. Anyone any idea? Anyway a few of my favourites - blue on whites: As common as anything but still real beauties in my eyes.

I've not come across that one, but it's not a bad description

Thanks - beautiful marbles whatever you call them!

Yes that's the closest I could find.

It seemed very 'fluid' - nothing like my Ravenswood which are more 'jerky'

5/8ths ish I couldn't find any patches like these apart from the Comets on Alan's archived pages, but I may be guilty of trying to find 'best fit'.

It's a nice swirly one (5/8ths). My guess is it will go in the unknown box but I could be missing something very obvious:

I've tentatively identified these as Master Comets, but my hit rate on separating out Master from Asian hasn't been high thoughts please? Thanks

I think the white one might be Heaton - looking through my bags, they are four vaned and very similar to Marble King in style, but some show very slight colour edging (something I'd thought was only really found on Vitros).

I'm happy with striped transparent as a descriptor although I'm not quite sure of the dividing line between striped transparent and Joseph's coat Beautiful. I'm guessing those are nearer 20mm in size from the pontil mark?

Yes - in my very limited experience they're frequently quite crude, frequently have surface flaws but almost always attractive and 'fun'. I don't like the Champion Jr name as a descriptor. Lovely!

I think from those definitions (the base is transparent and the threads are basically the same size, generally separated by a thin sliver of clear glass but merging in a couple of spots - they're not on a white or coloured back) I'll still go with Joseph's Coat. It does seem a slightly contentious issue I see some people define by the number of colours, but although it is predominantly two shades of blue there are multiple colours there, just in only a few threads. They're pretty things what ever they are

Mine might be quite big

Thanks both - they're just transparent colourless - I thought Onion Skins had to be over a coloured or white base? The base is transparent - no coloured core, or colour beneath the strands. Predominantly two shades of blue, but also pink, white, light green and on one a single purple strand and on the other a single yellow strand. I'm confused.

I've not really been looking at handmades but stumbled across this pair of Joseph's Coats and couldn't resist dipping my toe in the water. Both are around 15mm:

Good luck. p.s, Happy Birthday

Thanks Winnie - I'm fairly confident it's not Vacor (I hung on to a few Vacor from a mixed lot and whilst I couldn't guarantee I'd always spot them the finish and overall feel of the marbles seems relatively distinctive in the hand), and whilst I can't be sure that an odd more modern marble slipped in, the lot this swirl came in didn't have anything else newer than the mid 70's. I'm happy with it as probable Veiligglas. I'm increasingly realising that a fair bit of the collection will have to be prefixed 'probable'

A pair of Pelts (just nameless tri-colour rainbos I think):

The camera is quite cruel to them to highlighting every flaw that doesn't stand out that strongly in the hand. Some is handling/play but there are a few as made surface bubbles that in my limited experience seem quite common with Pelts.