PittsburghMarbles

The original would have been ivory, at least it looks like ivory and looks like it would have been from the mid 1800s. I 99.99% guarantee that ain’t an original.

A few big ones I got. Wish I could find more sulfides while out hunting that are mint. These are the only two I’ve ever found in the past few years at antique stores that weren’t damaged and also unpolished. The other two I got super lucky and found at garage sales.

Here’s some swirls from my collection of every historic and modern swirl maker, well except Playrite of which I have no examples or at least none that I know of.

Got these recently out of an Akro tin I bought. Some Akro Oxblood snakes. The top one has a pretty good chip out of it but the better one with more color on the bottom is mint luckily.

I took these photos at the Canton marble show last year of someone’s awesome Canadian transitional marbles. I unfortunately didn’t note his name so I’m not sure whose marbles they were. However he was sitting next to Sami Arim, of Peltier notoriety. What is known of this mysterious marble maker in Canada? I assume it was in either in Hamilton or Montreal; which were two of the largest glass manufacturing areas in Canada historically. I am not even certain as to when these were made. But from the colors I doubt they are the age of MFC or earlier Leightons/Navarres. The colors rather resemble CAC colors so possibly they dare from the 1920s to 30s. They could be later or earlier, not sure.

Re-arranged some of my vitros the other day.

I’ve only been collecting marbles for about 3 years and have been collecting antique glass for about 15 years. I am now completely out of room in my antique room for marbles, which is the only room the pets aren’t allowed in. We have a cat and 2 dogs so displaying marbles on shelves is pretty precarious. I’ve already had to pack up most of my glass collection as I’d like to display all of my good marbles but that is now getting impossible. How do you guys display your marbles? I could get glass shelving with glass doors but there are pretty dang expensive. How do you guys display stuff in pet proof ways? Our cat got in my room the other day and batted all of my Heatons off the shelves and then jumped up on my pelt shelf and did the same. Somehow nothing got damaged…

Had a pretty epic haul today at antique stores. Found a super mint fish sulflide unpolished, a nice German handmade, an MK Spider-Man, ton of akros, an awesome vitro aquamarine, a couple nice masters, some later champions, a nice pelt acme reeler, bags full of swirls that I’ll have to go through and loads of jabo runs. Still have lots to sort through.

MK

As an aside, just got this 1932 ad off of feebay of master marbles. I’ve got a bunch of these from 1920s and 30s magazines/advertisements to departments stores like Woolworths etc. I frame them and they display really well. The most common adverts seem to be German handmades from pre 1925, then Akros in the 20s and 30s and then Masters from the 30s. I don’t really care about adverts from post 30s. I’ve yet to find advertisements for alley, CAC, and or anyone else from the 30s. I know they exist or at least am sure they exist somewhere.

Not technically a score as I didn’t buy these, but they’re from a dig I was a part of at the Cairo Factory in Oct. and 4 for sure Davis marbles from Cairo. Still have two buckets to clean, and am running out room for marbles. Keep having to put more antique bottles and glass away until I buy more shelves, but am limited with space that’s safe from two dogs and an evil cat who loves to jump on shelves and bat marbles and glass…. I guess I’ll have to buy some expensive glass cases next.

Obviously this isn’t glass or marble related and if not tolerated by the forum delete this. I have nearly 45 maps dating to around 1889-1898 that I found in an abandoned house. I want to get the largest ones framed; some are 4 ft by 6ft. But the only antique map store where I live went out of business nearly 8 years ago. Do any of you know of a good place or how to get them framed and de-creased? I know there’s a way to get the fold creases out of them but have no idea how to do so and definitely don’t want to damage them further seeing as there around 130 years old.

Excuse me for my ignorance but are those Vacors? They are beautiful.

Took some of my favorite marbles out of my shelves today as I had some down time from work with Christmas and all and happened to see that it was Thüringen Thursday now. Not all are obviously German handmades but just happened to have some of them mixed with other stuff on this board now.

A couple of months ago I got lucky and found an original tin with the original inserts and bag. The bag naturally being 90 or so years old is pretty dirty, not horrible but definitely not clean whatsoever. Is there a way to safely clean it without damaging it? It being clean would also help preserve it for hopefully another 90 plus years. I’m sure it being dirty doesn’t help preserve it. As an aside, is there a good way to clean a nearly 100 year old tin? I’m sure it’s got loads of grime on it and would look much brighter cleaned but I don’t want to damage the color possibly by cleaning it without knowing the proper technique.

Found a nice new antique store today that had a person that had just a stall of marbles. His prices were way cheaper than what can be found on eBay. He also didn’t quite know in some cases what he had as marbles were mislabeled and had way cheaper prices than what they’re actually worth. Been a long time since I found a dealer who only sells marbles. Got two really nice MFCs, an alley calligraphy, shimmering spruce, blue lady, an epic Akro egg yolk oxe, a vitro Easter, 2 nice masters, a giant Akro slag and a super nice onion skin; all mint. All of this for just 72 bucks, so I call that a win for sure. I was snooping around Ohio and was hoping to find some CACs today but no luck. Still waiting to find that Guinea, the last major collectible marble for my collection that I don’t have yet. I’m probably just going to have to give up and buy one at a marble show for an insane amount. Don’t think I’ll ever find one in a jar. Regular CACs are hard enough to find in jars, let alone a Guinea.

Those are some awesome vacors, I don’t know Jack about them really but from the little I known I know I’ve never seen most of these before so they just be early, like 1930s-80s or so vacors.

Got some Akro cullet today from Roger Hardy’s collection and also bought some 1980s champion bags from him.

Also, found this today… along with marbles I also collect Hobbs and Brockunier glass out of Wheeling, WV. This piece was 40 bucks at a garage sale. It’s a Hobbs, Brockunier from 1887. In the guide it states too rare to value. The only other Neapolitan Hobbs and Brockunier nut bowl I’ve seen has been on display at the Oglebay Glass Museum near Wheeling which has the best collection of Wheeling glassware in the country. Grover Cleveland purportedly had this Neapolitan ware in his collection as he supposedly was a big collector of Hobbs, Brockunier and Co. Wonder if this piece was in his collection…. He did have Neapolitan Hobbs in his collection. Almost passed out when I found it.

Found a sweet jar of marbles this weekend, not really a score as they wanted 99 bucks for it. But it has a mint pelt Cub Scout in it so it was worth it and a few other nice mibs, along with a mint alley metallic, some nice masters and some nice vitros etc. Nearly every marble in the jar though was pretty beat up. I don’t usually spend that much on a jar as I’m always looking for deals but have hit a drought of good mib finds in the past few weeeks so whatever. When I told the lady I’d like to look In the jar before buying it she took it and violently dumped the marbles out. I was like you should be more careful as they can get nicked easily. Always pisses me off at antique stores how poor they treat marbles while slamming them into jars and pouring them out. You wouldn’t slam around a glass vase or any other piece of vintage or antique glassware. I always tell people that marbles are like any other vintage or antique glass and that they can get damaged easily and then are worth nothing to collectors.

Is the canton show in Feb the only one in Pittsburgh/Cleveland/WV area planned for next year? I hope not. I moronically missed the last show a couple months ago in Paden City or Sistersville, WV wherever it was as I forget to put it on my calendar, ugh. On a sidenote, I wonder what will become of marble shows in the future. I’m 34 and usually the youngest by far at most. Unfortunately most my age don’t care about antiques. I hope the shows will persist into the future, but every year there seems to be less and less to go to.

Top three marbles on the right are the best, bottom one is an alley bacon possibly; would have to see more angles, then 2nd from top is a nice 1930s vitro and top is a pretty good Akro cork. There’s also a few other alleys in there, some super common MKs and about in the middle appears to be a pelt rainbo.

From one of the alley agate books I have. The swan I’m not 100 percent on, perhaps Ron can shed some light if it’s alley as I know he has a bunch of the alley figurines.

Found these nice alley figurines today at an antique store. First ones I’ve ever found.

I always thought that straight cut line usually meant it’s a cac slag…