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!

I looked these up on Amazon but they appear to just be rubber gloves with texture. How would they be helpful?

They all measure 5/8”. The green ones swirl through the marble, but with the whitish ones it’s more on the surface. The amount of swirl makes me think Jabo. Edit: I was looking through Block’s book and saw an Alley that looked very similar.

It’s on old letterpress drawer. I thought it would be a neat way to display them, but it’s been good for sorting (although I’m clearly running out of room!). The group of three marbles are a reddish-orange slag or swirl.

I’ve been going through my hoard of marbles and sorting them roughly by color. I know I have some types mixed together when they should be, but I had to start somewhere. I still have jars and boxes full of marbles to go through. Higher res: https://imgur.com/a/CoqFcp9 Let me know if there’s anything you want to see closer up.

I’ll give it a try. I’ve found that a rubdown with a Magic Eraser works wonders, but it’s a lot more work.

I realize this is a lot, but I started going through this tray and realized a number of them seemed to have something unusual about them, so I thought I’d post the whole Riker box and let other enjoy going through it looking for oddities. https://imgur.com/gallery/gTTMNii There was an oxblood heavy white opaque, but I removed it prior to the photo for safekeeping.

These are wonderful! That looks like a great way to spend a few days. I’m curious what you used to clean those marbles—they look amazing!

Here they are. As always, I’m not sure what brand or if they’re even bumblebees! I’m guessing Marble King?

Steph, I have what I think might be some bumblebees. I’ll post them soon.

I have this box of marbles that was simply labeled “Jabo Joker.” I’m trying to determine if they are a set or family, or whether it’s OK to split it up. Does anyone recognize any of them? I think all of them have aventurine or lutz in them, but it can be hard to see (and even harder to photograph), particularly the black aventurine. I’m using the Imgur gallery because it maintains much higher image quality https://imgur.com/gallery/y1X1CZs