Alan

I own two Akro spinner cups dug from the site. They have grooves carved into the cup to "catch" glass and start it spinning.

FYI Greg: The pee wee box that I sold to Les was roughly twice that size.

Les Jones had a Pee Wee box. I sold it to him at the Columbus show.

The handmade market is showing softness right now - which to me means "BUY!". I would buy mint sulphides with good figure placement and detail without hesitation. I bought a really nice handmade last weekend at the New Philly that would have cost me twice the price in an average market - so I see the soft market segment as an oportunity.

Al of the sulphide coins that I have seen were roughly 3 times as thick as the one pictured.

Killer Pelts: A PHENOMINAL set of Pee Wees: Killer Bricks, slags, Pekts etc:

HotHouse Glass (makers of GREAT "Plaidacinos": Geoff Beetem and some of his great work:

Peltiers: Handmades: "The Griff":

Eddie Seese: Mark Thompson ®: John Harris - Clearwater Agates (L): A great Indian board: Peppermints:

The handmades on the Solitaire board were huge - ~2" in diameter! Royal Morse:

I took a lot of photos at the New Philly show and thought that I would share them with others. It was a very good show with quite a quantity and array of quality marbles for sale. Kudos to Steve Smith for putting it all together. Enjoy the pics! Alan Carl Fisher and his work with polymer clay: Two pieces based upon his wife's vintage paperweight (top): Show Hall: Zillions of Jabos: A pause in the show to recognize Smitty's great work in organizing and promoting the show:

They do not apear to be what have popularly become known as "English colors" IMO.

The cullet you show in the pics appears to have come from the factory breaking down a furnace/pot and rebuilding it. That would also easily explain large, heavy pieces.

Akro Agate's largest production size was 1" - although rare experimental varieties exist larger than 1" (a very rare few substantially larger).

IIRC the Fairlylite toy company was owned by the Graham Brothers in the UK. It manufacturerd and imported from Japan. The logo below looks like a match to yours:

The thought crosses my mind that it would not be inconceivable for it to be Jabo.

I'm not aware of Champion furnace marbles anywhere approaching 15/16" dia.

For a "hand gathered" marble - the gaffer picks up a quantity of hot glass on the end of a steel rod (known as a punty) using a circular motion. That hot (and flowing) glass is then held over the marble machine and is allowed to drip at a reasonably constant flow rate into a machine which takes a small portion of the hot glass and rounds it into a sphere. A helper stands near the hot glass gather with glass shears to cut the appropriate quantitiy of glass for each marble. In a handmade marble - a cane of glass is slowly constructed in a series of successive steps to build a design in the form of a cylinder on the end of a punty. For a Latticinio core swirl or example - the gaffer would pick up a quantity of clear glass and begin to gradually form it into a cylinder - perhaps 4" in diameter or so. This is Harry Bessett demonstrating at Wheaton Village: The gaffer will use calipers to know the circumference of the cylinder and will adjust towards a specific circumference. That circumference is important for the next step - picking up individual thin color rods that will form the latticinio core. The color rods are placed on a marver plate (usually steel) with parallel grooves to hold the color rods to be picked up. The rods are heated by an assistant to bring them to a temperature similar to that of the cylinder to allow them to adhere and to avoid temperature shock. An assistant heats the color rods on a white grooved marver plate: When the cane cyliner is the right dimension - it is laid on the end of the grooved marver and slowly rotated across the face of the marver - picking up the latticinio rods. If the dimension is correct - the rods will be evenly spaced after the last one is picked up (if not - there will be a gap). The cylinder and rods will go into the gloryhole to be heated together and go to the steel marver table to be pressed together evenly. Then back to the gloryhole. Another gather of clear is made on to of the core rods. Rememer that the cylinder is still quite thick - 4-6" or so. If you look closely you can see the latticion core color rods inside the clear: If it is a two stage piece (outer bands) - the artist will prepare to pick up outer color rods (which may also become flattened ribbons) in the same way the core was set-up on a grooved marver plate. The outer rods are picked up, heated, rolled on the marver and one last gather of clear is collected from the pot. This is now rolled into a even cylinder. Back into the glory hole for re-heating: Back to the marver for shaping and smoothing: Here is a pic of Geoff Beetem using the marver: That cylinder is likely larger in diameter than the desired marbles - so it is "pulled down" to a smaller diameter. This is done by re-heating it evenly (end to end) and having an assistant grasp the end of the thick cane with a tool and pulling in opposite directions until the desired diameter is reached. (This pic is of pulling murrini cane - but it is the same process) The artist then uses glass shears to cut off the end of the cane - which is a somewhat ragged collection of colors and uneven glass. That new "end" of the cane is the start of a marble and is rounded into a sphere by use of a wet hardwood cup. The artist then sits and uses a pair of jacks to begin narrowing the cane at a point by constantly revolving the punty - back and forth (remember that the cylinder of glass is hot and fairly soft). This continues until the marble takes its spherical shape. Geoff Beetem: The "neck" of the marble narrows until the artist is ready to remove it from the cane like this: Geoff Beetem fire polishing the pontil: Voila - a new handmade marble! Hope this helps! Alan

I can't say for sure without handling it - but it apears to be handgathered slag-ish to me. The photos are marginally lit so I can't be sure - but I don't see details that would lead me to believe that the red is oxblood.

John: That would call for some real speculation. I'm certainly missing some. I have one of the orange Ravenwood catalog fliers that came with the crate find and its impossible to discern what marble is what from the black and white photos. I'd love the chance to dig through someone else's Ravenwood crate marbles to see if they are all the same or there is some diversity. Ravenswood's use of clear and a nearly uniquely swirled second color in a predictable jumbled pattern is a good diagnostic. Like any marble manufacturer - handling a lot of their material over time and getting used to what colors the used (and didn't generally use) is helpful in ID. Of course there are always the oddball types (some of which are pictured above) that out of left field and could be easily mis-identified or go unidentified because they break the color or pattern trend. Regards, Alan

I would say that the marble on the right is a definite. The one on the left is a little hard for me to get a feel for - so I would have to withold a call on it. Alan

Wrapping things up: Here are a few group photos to give you a different perspective: I hope some find this discussion and the accompanying photos to be helpful when identifying Ravenswoods. End series You are free to use these photos without restriction for your personal uses but they may not be used on/in for-profit websites or publications. Contact me if you have a question.

Part V A mix of Ravenswood greens - transparents and mostly opaques: Two very nice transparent blues - which may be variants of the 4 posted in the premium group: More transparents: Clear with whispy white swirls in the matrix: Only one of its color/pattern I have of this: Two florescent Ravenswoods I have. They do not photogrph well to show that there is an underlying pattern in the opaque matrix: Shifting to opaques once again: I found these mixed with the common Ravenswood swirls that came from the 1987 find crates. They have fairly good flames of transparent color on an opaque white base. I hve no idea why these are sole examples of flames that I have seen from the large groups I have gone through. End Part V

Continuing the transparent varieties: Hre are some different transparent Ravenswoods. Following the "a picture is worth a thousand words" approach - I think the photos are good enough for your studied eye to discern the colors, patterns and nuances of the types: Aqua blue:The piecs on the left and right have an almost corkscrew of opaque white in the core: Aqua blue: Blue variants: The following types are made up of a clear matrix with brown/amber and white swirls jumbled throughout the matrix. As you can see from photos presented erlier - this jumbled internal pattern is a repeated theme on transparent Ravenswoods - although not all. (Note the marble in the upper left. Notice anything different/ unusual about it's matrix color? Its vaseline (uranium oxide) glass - the only one of its type I have. Here it is alone in sunlight: Here it is under UV light: I cannot explain why they used vaseline glass in a minority of the run. In my experience, vaseline glass was not used by Ravenswood - although I have two opaque florescent types (see further along in this thread). Emerald green transparents: This is a single Ravenswood piece that I have that is among the most beautiful that I've seen. I only have one like it. Transparent clear with off-red swirls with a wispy white: End Part IV