Alan

It appears to be a flopover single ingot.

Is the surface hard, or has some 'give'?

The bead wasn't drilled. It was mandrel-wound, a common and easy modern bead making technique. Its the first flameworked bead making technique taught in basic classes. As noted earlier, the first is just a funky cats eye.

Satava Jellyfish:

You are correct in saying that it is not a Matthews. The signature doesn't ring a bell. Obviously a tank marble. Odd speckling, the likes of which I have never seen. Two-stage frit roll done quickly without trying to cover either pole. The gold-ish color looks iridescent - and that can reflect UV light making you think its reactive when its actually reflective. Guessing its the latter. IMO there is a fair chance that its not a generally known studio (a lot of gift shop pieces come from such studios). Size?

There is a group of people interested in the vintage manufacturing process of marbles and specifically the glass. There was a rather deep study a few years ago of the dynamics of glass in liquid form and how it behaves in a glass tank. I think you'll find that glass flow in the tank is responsible for the flow you describe resulting in that flame-line pattern, instead of it oozing out of the tank and "piling up". Some of those dynamics will be influenced by the condition/age of the tank interior, and possibly some weather conditions.

There isn't much to add really. The French Drain was pretty narrow. 'W' told me that there was only room to go straight-in, and no room to turn around. He had to scoot backwards to get back out. Risky business. Much of what came out of there (that I recall) were weird oxbloods, some odd translucent big pieces with a floaty internal 1-piece swirl thing (IIRC ~7/8"... a few dozen of these went into the hobby) and a few other things. Again, everything in the drain was a discard while they were dialing-in production to whatever design they intended. The oxbloods tended to defy expected appearances - some being a clear base with internal oxblood in a solid, well-defined twisted swirl. All large... around 13/16" (like your piece - right?) There are very, very few of these in the hobby.((ETA: Bob Block just sold one at auction: https://bid.marbleauctions.com/lots/view/4-8AGFCQ/akro-agate-company-experimental-2532-mint-99 )). I have three oxblood patches on what appears to be a black base. When strongly backlit, the base is a dark gray-olive. Even far fewer of these were found. Hope this helps. Alan

I think you meant "Experimental", not "Experiential" (two different meanings). First, they aren't "experimental". These specific types, of which there aren't many, were found by a digger I'll refer to as "W" in the Akro site French Drain. I know because I visited the drain and was the primary buyer from him. They and some other odd types were discarded into the drain because they didn't meet the type that Akro wanted to produce. There was some weird stuff that came out of that relative compact drain content. And you are right, they aren't oxbloods. I have a number of them.

Any classic Popeye on Vaseline glass is killer.

I think you'll find that the black is UV "reflective", not "reactive". Reflection of the light is common to mistake in black and white.

Cat's Eyes are machine made. Try not to see imperfections as "pontils".

Its just fine as it is. Any attempt to clean it will degrade it.

As a Veteran - I thank you for the kind thought. I can tell you that it can be pretty isolated and lonely for a lot of our military. Some of the places that many serve are quite isolated, even desolate. And they can feel pretty much on their own, unknown and forgotten. I have visited a few of those places. Even those on established military posts overseas with 4-500 people can feel pretty isolated serving during Christmas. From firsthand experience, it can be a quiet 24-hour shift on Christmas because married (accompanied) military almost never have duty on Christmas, New Years etc. So the younger, single guys get the duty. But they are there, serving, underpaid and generally unacknowledged. To Brothers and Sisters in arms across the globe - I know your sacrifices and appreciate all that you do. Here is a Planet recognizing how widely you serve.

Yes. Thank you. Yes, the outer perimeter is all big 'Half and Half' patch experimentals. Here is another view:

Handmades (first love), Akro, Ravenswood and contemporaries.

Diana Hulet does excellent work. I have given a box of them as a gift. https://huletglass.com/web/HiResImages/HighResPhotos.htm

Contemporary

Its damage on a machine made.

Respectfully, I know ~95% of what came out of the French Drain (only one digger, "W", found and collected the vast majority of it) and that didn't come from the French Drain. The French Drain material has a certain consistency to it. I know you said the color wasn't right - but that doesn't look like Akro glass. The pattern doesn't either.

Not ringing my Akro bell

MK Bumblebee

"Fried" marble. We fried plenty in my day.

No

While its not the answer you are looking for, the reality is that it takes experience and time to learn accurate identification and grading. Back in the day when a lot of people went to shows, identification and grading was built from handling and discussing a lot of marbles. Hands-on, in front of people who really knew. Handling large number and variation of marbles in a single room, times 25-80 rooms. It wasn't about guessing. You could rotate it in hand and see every view, get used to seeing varying degrees of wear. There were a few Gold Standards of identification and grading whose name and face-to-face reputation were on the line. As fewer people came to shows and more came to rely on the Internet, identification became an increasing game of comparing your unknown marble of unknown condition to Web photos, many or most of which looked "kinda similar" and could be concluded to maybe the same. Learning accurate grading on Internet photos can be likened to rolling dice - with a fair helping of wishful optimism flavoring it. The concept of "as-mades" was invented. Facebook groups with contributions of questionable accuracy arose. It seems that the term "near mint" has come to now commonly cover a multitude of sins. The concept of "same run" machine mades was invented, seemingly to infer rareness and higher value, disconnected to the reality of machine made mass production over months or years. Learning accurate identification and grading off the Internet has considerable challenges. Variances in one singular type, color combination and design of marble have a sliding scale of popularity.... that popularity changing over time. Small variations on common styles can mean one marble will sell for $50 and it's sister will sit unsold for $20. What was "cool" 5 years ago falls in popularity and price in time. I'm always impressed that when you go to a larger show, a few hours in the rooms and you get a feel for which way the wind is blowing for what people are looking for and roughly where values may be going for those types. Values and demand/interest rise and fall. Putting values in print would mean that they would be out of date soon after publishing. And price is a function of all of these, plus what the seller has into it and how interested (or not) they are in selling/making a killing. I suggest focusing on one or two manufacturers and develop experience with them. Learn to grade accurately and dispassionately. Try to not get sucked into wishful ID and grading. An appreciation of value in a changing market will follow. Then you can confidently expand what you are interested in collecting. Hope this helps!