Alan

While it is styled after a Jetson-like design - ....... (Unfortunately, I have chosen to remove this content due to unchecked behaviors by others on this board. Moderators may choose to humor it, but I will not. My apologies to those who will not benefit from it in the future.)

Charles Gibson from Gibson Glass.

Here is a high res scan of it:

I have the original postcard and probably the videotape.

Good pics - thanks for posting them! Good to see some folks that I know.

and.........

Take care not to temperature shock the marbles.

The funny thing is that it was free. It came from a digger in a box that contained an Akro Agate machine funnel (I'm a sucker for Akro marble machine parts) and some cullet and misc. junk. I confess that it has a flat spot.

The Popeye in question is truly an Akro Agate-produced piece, unmolested in the same shape as it was dug on the site.

Hehe...

(Unfortunately, I have chosen to remove this ID content due to unchecked behaviors by others on this board. Moderators choose to humor it, but I will not. My apologies to those who will not benefit from it in the future.)

I'll echo Sue's comments above. If you like them for what they are - buy them. If you think that they are some kind of potential "investment" - then I think you are missing the spirit of marble collecting. You are buying the marble - not the story. No-one knows how many more runs there will or won't be. Ask yourself this: Why would it matter? I for one would like a group of these. Your mileage may vary.

(Unfortunately, I have chosen to remove this ID content due to unchecked behaviors by others on this board. Moderators choose to humor it, but I will not. My apologies to those who will not benefit from it in the future.)

Although I own some weights - I'm by no means a good person to estimate. Perhaps posting it on a paperweight board might lead you towards an artist/value.

Is it signed?

Spooky masks...

(Unfortunately, I have chosen to remove this content due to unchecked behaviors by others on this board. Moderators may choose to humor it, but I will not. My apologies to those who will not benefit from it in the future.)

(Unfortunately, I have chosen to remove this content due to unchecked behaviors by others on this board. Moderators may choose to humor it, but I will not. My apologies to those who will not benefit from it in the future.)

Inclusions and faults are a function of how the batch (glass) and the marbles were made. There is a tendency among collectors to see marble making as an exacting process with an expectation of consistency. The reality is that marble making was done at the best possible speed. Handmades were limited to the speed of the multi-step process. Machine mades were a strictly volume business - with a good manufacturer producing several train boxcars every other day. Ingredients for the batch were shoveled from a pile on the factory floor. Given this - just about anything could end up in the batch. An interview with a vintage marble machine operator revealed that they enjoyed throwing small metal objects into the pot due to the flare that it would produce. So glass can have all manner of impurities in it - given the crudeness of the manufacturing process. There are handmades with foreign objects in them - but they are comparatively rarer (oven brick aside).

If embedded in the glass - looks like ash from the pot.

Can you take pics of the pontils? Thanks

I bought these lousy wirepulls from some guy named Griff