Spherophile

Thanks, Stephen! I spent a long time thinking about it and then a fair amount of time tinkering with it before I got it to work. I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to use them in my eBay listings. I have a lot of marbles to sell, so it’s a big project. I’ll likely try and find a way to refine it to make it faster. Anyway, I found a marble very similar to my first marble here, so I guess it’s Akro:

The amount of information I find online is far greater than what I see in the books I’ve found, but boy do you have to dig for it. I have been selling a lot of my Akro Agate reproduction boxes (a lot more demand than I expected), and am getting a lot of requests for additional items. I always wants to research them so I have an idea of what it is I’m offering, how they were originally marketed, etc. Occasionally I’ll come across a post with a lot of information that you just can’t find anywhere else. Steph’s library on here is an excellent resource, but the loss of the old image host was a big setback. I know she’s working hard to restoring it.

I’ve got two corkscrews, and a third one I don’t know what type it would be. The first one has an amber clear glass with an opaque yellow corkscrew. Second is clear glass (although the whole thing is frosted), with an orange corkscrew with a whole lot of ribbon to it. Finally this multicolored mib with a clear base. Not sure what the style would be called. Is it a swirl? I’m shooting my marbles with a new setup so you can see them dimensionally. I hope it will make identification easier. They’re certainly more fun to look at!

Very informative. You’re a wealth of knowledge!

I just looked up Jackson marbles. Looks like they’re rare, but as anyone on here can testify I can’t identify marbles. 😝 Can you clue me in? Is it the green and white shooter? Edit: Block says Jackson only came in 5/8, so I guess it’s not the shooter.

I agree there will be disagreement about some of the identifications, but I see that everywhere I look. For example, here’s some discussion about Akro Carnelians and other “axes,” where they show that whether they glow under UV is open to debate: http://www.landofmarbles.com/phpbb/showthread.php?29739-Akro-1 The app wouldn’t be perfect, but for many it would put them on the right track if not get it right. The technology we have available today is simply amazing.

A: They all glow (to various degrees and in various colors) under UV!

Q: What do all of these marbles have in common?

The technology is all in place now with machine learning. You simply train the software by feeding it pictures and identifying what they are, and the software learns how to identify from them. This is being used with things such as plants, which have far more variability in terms of leaf shape, angle, size, etc. I’m a tech guy but not a coder, but anyone with basic coding skills could likely build the app framework in a week. Then it’s just a matter of feeding it pictures, which the users do themselves (someone who knows what they’re seeing just needs to review them on the back end). https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/use-smartphone-identify-anything-camfind/

The yellow is so even along all of the edges of the marble, with no clear areas evident anywhere. Are you sure it’s not a yellow base?

I’m always amazed when people find marble sets like this. I’ve visited every antique shop I can find within 20 miles, and the best I found were some fake Alox Agates bags for $75 (and that was actually in the next state over!). It’s usually old jars full of cats eye marbles for $25 a pop. I was told by two different vendors that there’s one guy in the area who will drive 50 miles to buy marbles. I don’t doubt it—this place is picked clean.

That Victory Agates bag is really neat. Do you have any better pictures of the header?

Thank you for your help!

I am good at many things, but identifying marbles is clearly not one of them. 😄

This is a great resource. Thank you!