Alan

I wonder how he manages to get through doorways with an inflated head like that. How sad.

Antique - and not polished.

They sell for more because Mark is a respected artist with a well-known, well-respected reputation for his own designs, innovation and excellent execution. People have been willing to pay premium prices for premium work.... and for a long time. I own plenty of his work - and will buy more.

It looks like the result of a blind man trying to repair old marbles on a torch. Talk about over-cooked......

A potential buyer has no point of reference whether the machine "works".... or how well. It has no history. How would it be fed? IMO - it will not sell for a fraction of that amount.

I'd (personally) probably refer to it more as a "sphere" - but marbles are made from a number of materials other than glass. I think its an interesting piece - given the care that went into shapng it.

Unsigned - the piece is generally unremarkable... without any specific stye that would point to a specific artist or artists.

Both pontils look fire polished to me - one seems to be sort of hastily done and uneven. I'm not sure the piece is round at the pontil (second in left column).

From my years of collecting handmades: 1. The frit colors are inconsistent with antique methods 2. The clear glass appears a bit too clear/bright. 3. The frit method is inconsistent with antique methods 4. The pontil show in the second photo right is not consistent with vintage methods And from a qualitative standpoint - the piece just looks wrong in almost all respects. For me - it isn't even close to an antique piece. Plenty of these types made by volume producers to sell in gift shops today for $25 retail. There is a gift shop near the Pentagon that has an entire window of these.

It is a new/contemporary piece.

There are one MILLION people in my metro area without power. Temps hit 100+ yesterday. Power may take a full week to be restored.

Yes - I have seen handmades with what collectors currently refer to as "aventurine" in (usually) the green. Of course this is caused by adding too much metal colorant to the color batch - causing it to be over-saturated and the metal flakes precipitate out - just as in machine mades.

You're welcome

Well then - the "Akro employee's family" must be torching marbles.

1. Torched 2. Torched again 2. Torched some more

That piece isn't the only torched marble being sold by that seller.

It looks absolutely torched to me. Especially in the 4th pic.

These were single "ingot" marbles. All of the ones I know of were dug by Roger Hardy - who sold a number of these over the years at the New Philly show. They are conservatively believed to be true experimentals from Akro... and have the classic signs of such. The orange peel surface texture is likely chill marks from cool rollers and the huge size is what Akro did with some designs that we refer to as "experimentals".

They look contemporary from here.

Probably an architectural accent or from a piece of furniture.

Opinion: Its torched Moretti glass. Contemporary.

Keep in mind that cane-cut contemporaries (as this one is) are made by the same process as vintage pieces. So the ridges are caused by the same processes. Those can be a twist imparted to the cane before or during the cut - or by the rounding process. Here is Geoff Beetem making a cane cut piece - which may illustrate the basic process and help you visualize how the ridge can be created. Remember: most cane-cut designs are intentionally twisted to cause the ribbons, latticino to spiral (Geoff makes PERFECT pieces )

Its a contemporary.

Here is some more Akro blue: