PittsburghMarbles

I’ve been researching it, scant information on them. But it appears people would personalize gear shift knobs, there’s many examples of differing peoples names in the glass. I got this one for 75 bucks today, the seller at the antique store had two other examples. The others at the antique store I was at today had similar name plates in them like these examples (from online below) and the Bessie one I bought today. All of the ones at the store and the one I bought and the examples online all have Pat 8-20-29 on the shifter part.

I have bought many historic bags, I sometimes open them and take the marbles out and keep the bag next to the marbles displayed. I’m very careful removing the staples and keep the original staples with the bag and the label. I also have loads of vitro plastic bags; I don’t bother opening those. If they’re common marbles in a bag I keep them in the bag as the value is the bag not the marbles. But if it’s a bag of Jackson’s or a bag of early akros, I’m sure as hell going to open it, but very carefully. Here’s an original bag of Jackson’s (only operated for one year and are very rare marbles) I recently got. I pulled out the staples very carefully with pliers and then took the marbles out and displayed them. I then very carefully put the staples back into the same position with the label.

Didn’t find much for marbles today, except some DAS marbles while searching in Amish Country. But the real cool thing I found today was a vintage gear shifter knob. Couldn’t find much on them except maybe they were made at Cambridge Glass or the Crystal Glass Co in Cambridge, OH. Possibly from the late 20s. Or it could be some modern junk, not really sure.

Did Ron ever publish any books or help with information in any books? I really hope his immense knowledge was preserved in some way. I still can't believe that this happened.

This is just horrible. I had the privilege to meet him a few times and even bought some marbles off of him. He was the marble god and knew everything there was to know about swirls. I’m so sad to hear this.

They almost look like pelt NLR fruit cocktails of some sort, but I can’t really tell from the photos .

400 seems a tad bit pricy for those marbles…

Wow, some of those patterns look very similar to some Akro and MK patches…

Some of my dug Cairos. For the few days I dug there last year the hurricane in the middle is the only one I found.

Do any of you find yourself not being able to wait to go home from work just so you can go mess around with your marbles?

Still waiting to buy a CAC Guinea, theyre just so damned expensive. Pretty much given up hope that I'll ever find one in a jar someday.

Well, I didn’t find Jack today while out antiquing and lost my bid at the last second for the amazing Akro boxes that were on eBay so I got these off of Etsy tonight. A nice 3/4ths onion skin and 2 whisplers; of which I don’t think I have any examples of, however I’ll have to look through my masters as there may be a few in there that I misidentified as masters.

A sampling of some of my favorite akros.

Just got these in the mail today and straight from Germany.

^ well, that was quick and yes lol

Some of my favorite WV swirls, every historic company is represented here from Davis to Alley. Can you place the one marble that is not historic and from Sammys?

I take it Akro did not make those cigarette lighters as well? I always see them on eBay as Akro but I don’t think they made them.

Some may find this interesting, here are some examples of glass beads. These first two examples are roughly from 1200-900 BC from Greece. ancient_glass_eye_bead_1a by PittsburghMarbles, on Flickr ancient_glass_stratified-eye_bead_8a by PittsburghMarbles, on Flickr Roman beads from around 100BCE to 300 CE. roman-bead-msa52b by PittsburghMarbles, on Flickr millefiori-bead-msa56 by PittsburghMarbles, on Flickr

It would be hard to date them or definitively know where they came from. Ancient glass vessels from western roman times to early Islamic age look nearly identical. Glass marbles would most likely date post 50 BCE; when glass blowing became common in the ancient world. I really wish there were some photos. Been scouring the internet for ancient examples and can’t find any. I’ve also been to the Corning Museum of Glass, but don’t recall seeing any ancient marbles. They do however have an extensive and amazing collection of Egyptian, Phoenician, Greek, western and Eastern Roman and Mesopotamian glass. As a side note, anyone who loves antique and or glass in general needs to see that museum. It’s incredible.

How did they differ from antique german handmades? Did they have pontil marks if you remember?

Any photos exist of them?

What is the oldest glass marble made for a game or play? I’ve seen many examples of ancient glass beads in museums dating to around 1500 BC from Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. But I haven’t found definitive information as to when the first glass marbles were made. Stone and agate marbles have obviously been made ever since humans first started making stone tools. Are there examples of a glass marble making industry before the 1800s?

My first guess would be alley, but what do I know?

Yes, that’s the best info anyone can get. I learned that lesson before marbles when I collected only bottles. Buy the best you can afford and don’t waste your time and money on cheap common bottles/marbles. With marbles I’ll spend 20 bucks on a jar if there’s 120 bucks of marbles in them. But I don’t buy a 50 dollar jar if there’s 25 2 dollar marbles in it. I still want examples of most of the companies marbles and with jars over years you can do that and sometimes you’ll find amazing stuff in them. But I only buy jars if they are around 10-20 bucks; unless there’s something really stellar and mint in it. I have a lot of luck with jars as I live only a couple of hours away from most of the historic marble factories but still rarely find a very expensive mint marble in jars, like marbles over 100-200 dollars each. Also, like I said before; go to marble shows and spend your money there. You’ll find loads of marbles for way way cheaper than you’ll find on eBay. I buy on eBay, but good cheapish finds are hard to come by and you’ll have to search for a long time. You definitely won’t find a good deal on stuff from the main marble sellers. If you buy from some of the big marble sellers on eBay, you’ll pay 4 times or more as much as the marble is actually worth.

Akro