Alan

Disregard then. I thought it might be one of his pieces commissioned by Cirque de Soleil.

I just thought of something: Is that color yellow.... or orange?

It looks wrong on several levels.

No - the two I pulled are of his frit design:

I just pulled two of my Coupals. Both are signed "Fco2" in the same style.

None of my Coupals are numbered. He was making limited run geometric pieces ("cubes") a few years ago.

Coupal?

Very nice. Wish I had some of those.

I'll be there!

Smity: Since I see a lot of Ebay marbles described as "9.8 wet mint... with a few micro-nicks, light wear and two blowholes" - I suppose that "mint" doesn't mean anything anymore and some enterprising capitalists have invented the "Mint+" grade. Soon to come will be: > Super Mint > Extra Minty > Mint Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary I shake my head ruefully at the sliding grading standards. Alan

Its a Rebel. NOT a GR.

That crossed my mind as well.

Normally yes - but it depends upon how it was necked down and cut and the pontil finished.

They are cane-cut marbles from what looks like two levels. That is just a function of his technique of necking-down and cutting the marble off the cane.

Sorry these are contaminated with oxblood.

FWIW - those are newer production - not 1950's patch and ribbon. 10-15 years ago there were reasonable quantities of them available at shows in the U.S. I have 20 or so rollin' around here somewhere.

The first and second photo make me wonder about the surface of the marble. The odd parsing of the statement "It does have a couple of tiny fleabites but I believe its incredibly WET original surface and size warrant some forgiveness in the grading of this outstanding marble." only confuses understanding of the condition. Personally - I wouldn't buy that marble without looking at it in hand.

Very nice examples. I'm jealous!

I believe that there are two differences that apply to this marble: - I believe that the use of gold chloride in ancient times was to make dark red ruby glass. This marble is a very different color than ruby glass - During the times of American machine made marble manufacture - I believe that all formulations of red glass used selenium as the active colorant - not gold.

Speculation: I would think the material noted as "lutz" is more likely un-dissolved glass colorant - especially given the appearance of the flakes, their shape and distribution.

Looks more like a wirepull - but a nice touch all the same.

Very nice Griff. My compliments to the very talented frit artist. I especially like the Lutz-speckled one.