Spherophile

I’m getting ready to sell my Tom Sawyer marble bag, and was hoping to identify the marbles in it. I know these bags are rare, although I’ve seen a couple people mention that they may have Vitro marbles. Is it possible to identify them through the well-worn bag? Thank you in advance!

I guess the list needs to be updated.

I had to look up the difference between a swirl and a slag, but I couldn’t find a consensus. The most common characteristic seemed to be that only older marbles are slags. Some made the claim that slag was never a name used by the manufacturers (slag being a term reserved for waste glass). Either way, Jabo apparently only made swirl marbles, and I guess that’s what’s these are.

I got the marble under some better light and found it was signed: FT. My searches didn’t turn up any likely candidates. Does anyone know who FT might be?

Thanks for the help. Glad I wasn’t the only one having trouble with it!

The swirl in these large slags glows very brightly under UV. They measure around .94” and look machine made, although I see some flaws (one is slightly flat on one part, another has a slight fold).

I’m working on separating my marble horde into groups to help with sorting and ID, but in the meantime I’m pulling out some of the unique ones that I’m not seeing in Block’s book. Any thoughts? https://imgur.com/a/JZVr9B3

Glass is frosted, but underneath it’s clear (hard to tell from photos). It’s easier to tell from the pole photos. https://imgur.com/a/rNlecN1 Any help would be appreciated!

Are black bananas a thing? I swear I have a couple somewhere in my horde.

It’s got a lot of colors to it. Pretty neat for a cat’s eye!

Consider buying a cheap UV flashlight on Amazon and check the marbles to see if any glow under UV. If so, list them on eBay as an auction—many marbles will sell for a few dollars as UV “glow bugs,” even if they don’t have much value otherwise. Good luck! I hope you make lots of money.

I just got my Block book today and just came here to say I identified it. Glad to see that I’m in agreement. 😊 I appreciate it, and the pictures of the extra pretty ones!

Unfortunately, this has given me a really bad case of Marble Envy. I only know of one treatment, but it’s expensive.

Am I correct that these are both Christensen marbles? The first one looks to me very much like the “rare” Persian from Block’s book, but I’m not very good at identification yet.

I’ve started sorting through my massive marble hoard. This is a type of marble I have a lot of, but there seem to be a number of similar styles from Akro, Vitro, etc. so I’m not sure what it is. Is it a Patch Swirl? The base color on these varies. Some are clear, some are amber, some are yellow/green. I’m not even sure they’re all the same type. Thank you for your help. There’ll be lots more coming, and I’m getting better equipment set up for photographing.

These are all amazing. I think Akro is my favorite brand.

It looks a bit like the eye of Sauron from Lord of the Rings. Neat marble!

This kind of post is very helpful for us newbies. Thank you.

There are some handmades, but mostly machine made.

I will, thank you!

The Tom Sawyer bag has a MAILLARD’S stamp on the back, as well as a handwritten name and date of 1955. The bag has a seam, and the paper doesn’t fluoresce under UV. It all looks legit. I started trying to organize the marbles a bit by color and realized I’m going to need some boxes to keep them all sorted. Lots and lots of boxes. Found some neat Ravenwoods, a genuine steelie, a really horrible fake steelie where someone but a cross into it with a dremel (or maybe a dull squirrel), some parrots, what looks like a Christensen Persian Oxblood (!), and various other oddities.

I bought this marble haul off a local junk/antique dealer. I won’t say for how much, but it was almost certainly too much. 😳 I don’t know where to begin in terms of sorting it. I can barely tell the difference between an Akro and a Vitro. This is going to take me an eternity. I figured I’d just post a few pictures of the whole lot, because I thought some of you might enjoy poking through it “with me” to see if you find anything fun. Album is on Imgur to maintain quality: https://imgur.com/a/BBZzE85

I sent a message to the seller. Not trying to get him removed or sanctioned, just trying to get him to rethink whether he should be offering it. My guess is he’s making them himself and they are obviously selling. To elaborate: I realize that for many people in this hobby that kind of terminology was commonplace when they were kids, and no one thought much of it or for many it wasn’t considered derogatory. Times have changed, and those terms and images have been co-opted and headlined by groups that I don’t think anyone here really wants to support.