Alan

Thanks very much. I've been considering making a box for these >1" Akros:

Where does one buy the old fashioned, thin, non-corrugated cardboard?

That circular mark is not a pontil.

That was why I ask whether it was made out of flannel. Definitely looks like PJs.

That cloth wouldn't happen to flannel - would it?

As Sue noted - it is pretty much a contemporary show. I don't think I would go unless contemporaries are something you are interested in (or unless you live nearby). That said - I enjoy the show.

Second glance says the same.

I don't own any St. Clair work - but the style struck me as reminiscent of his work. So mine is a guess - not authoritative.

I was thinking St. Clair.

Fairly close - except that people were paying thousands for them as recently as last Fall, IIRC. Most handmade people new they were suspect as soon as they came out. I handled two of them several years ago. They were "sponsored". Some of use know who the sponsor is. An artist didn't just cook them up on his own.

Does anyone know if Ravenswood made industrial marbles?

Since vintage marbles were made almost exclusively to play marbles with - any marble larger than 3/4" would: 1. Be too large for a child's hand to shoot with 2. Not conform to marble playing regulation - which IIRC limit marble diameter to 3/4". We all know some vintage types that were made larger than 3/4" - but we should remember that they were made to be played with - not collected as we do today.

I have been several times. It is 90+ percent contemporary marbles. It is a very enjoyable time. It does suffer from two key problems: 1. The venue (WheatonArts) does not promote the show at all. You are left to find out about the show on your own. They have been uncommitted to the show in the past - canceling it without a clear reason. 2. The adjacent hotel fills up VERY early - and the next nearest hotel is not nearby. The hotel always has weddings - and the wedding party fill the hotel months in advance. I think it could make a great combined contemporary/vintage venue - but the adjacent hotel cannot support that.

Observation: The marbles don't seem to fit the box as I would expect. They seem on the small side.

IMO: I own shoes older than that box.

A good marble stands on its own and doesn't need a story to prop it up. When I start hearing stories - I begin looking much closer.

Herbie was a character in the original run. This one appears correct.

I wouldn't hasten to concede naming conventions to those misused on Ebay - or frankly anywhere else. I haven't conceded that Ebay reflects the core vintage marble collecting market - because I don't believe that it does. Just because people misuse a term doesn't dilute the true meaning of it. This discussion is about what the term means and how one can define it in a way that can be applied to the hobby. Although discussions of the chemistry behind the multiple methods of producing oxblood glass in vintage marbles is relevant and I think important to understand at some level - at the end of the day we need to be able to hold a marble in our hand and say "This is oxblood BECAUSE _________________________________." Discussions of chemistry or the presence of micro-crystalline structures are interesting to the more experienced collector - but they are no help to the collector - and especially the novice collector - who is attempting to learn naming conventions properly.

The use of the term "oxblood" was used to describe color long before the term was used to describe marble glass color. It is not exclusive to marbles or glass, but the color it describes is reasonably consistent between glass, paint etc. I know of no use of the term "oxblood" traceable to children in the heyday of marble playing. If anyone does, or has vintage sales literature that reflects it - that would expand the discussion.

So - to the purpose of the thread - how do you recommend diagnosing the absence or presence of "microcrystalline copper" in marbles?

Marble King St. Mary's.

To help with the feature discussion - I'll offer this:

Like any trait in a specialized hobby - a term to describe a valued trait can become overly-defined. Over time, the interest in oxblood has grown as a prized/desired trait. It has gotten to the point where we see many "Is this oxblood?" threads and folks hope that the brown in their marble is indeed what we call oxblood. I think that the interest in oxblood can cause us to over-define it. Occam's Razor (slightly translated) states that: "Give two otherwise equal solutions, the simpler one is the better." I tend to believe in simpler solutions to what become difficult definitions. To this end I'll pose this question: "Was that marble with "oxblood" a manufacturer's production item?" Was it in their Salesman's cases? Was it a standard production item? If the answer is yes, and it meets the conventional definition of oxblood color glass broadly accepted in the collecting hobby - then I would call it an oxblood. I think we tend to lose sight of the fact that a marble factory made marbles that conformed to specific types as ordered by and sold to their retail customers. It wasn't a free-form, "make whatever you want today" manufacturing business. Look at the stock boxes (which is what retailers received and sold from). The marbles in them conformed to a standard. They were products with defined characteristics. The huge marble dumps that contain marbles that didn't conform to the manufacturing established standard for color and appearance are a testament to their quality control to a standard. I recommend that we focus on the manufacturer's stock box/bag/etc. products and look at oxblood as a standard glass choice. If we focus on the exceptions (and there are huge numbers of exceptions because there have been so many digs at factories - I predict that we will not succeed in agreeing what oxblood is. I could give you my simple definition of oxblood that I use - and a moment later produce a few examples that break at least on the the definition rules - all the while being true oxblood because it is a dug example that came from a problem or experimental run. Exception can cause us to get off track. These comments are made without addressing the oxblood that came from German hand-gathered marbles. This is a specialty collecting area and I believe that just about everyone who collects them know what is and isn't "oxblood". We can debate the chemistry - but to what end? No-one is going to develop a litmus test for marbles. I have a lot of Akro oxblood cullet. There are some mild variances - but they are generally consistent with the definition that has served me well or many years. I think that any discussion of a marble trait definition has to keep in mind that novices need to be able to grasp it visually (after handling valid examples) and it have relatively simple visual diagnostics that all of us can look at, point to, describe and say "that is oxblood BECAUSE........." My two cents, Alan

Based upon the photos - the darker band appears to be just that - a darker band. I don't see oxblood in those photos.