gdp1

Don The handle does not screw off. It is affixed with what appears to be a ½” dowel and just pressed into the handle and box.

I was helping clean out an old building the other day and came across this marble ballot box with the marbles still in it. I’m not sure of its age but most of the old records found with it were 1917 up to 1950. The Veterans of Foreign Wars used the building for many years and the old records were from them so I assume this was used for their voting. Anyway I thought it was a neat find and I managed to salvage it from going into the dumpster.

I remember a few years back an old ship wreck (dated early 1800's) was found and some of its cargo was marbles being shipped to the “colonies” from Germany. I have seen pictures of those marbles and globs of them embedded in coral brought a high price. Some were also individual marbles that also were rather pricey. They do look somewhat like the ones that have been showing up on ebay. Perhaps someone thinks they can fake those shipwrecked ones.

It is an accurate rendition of the Vesta but I don’t care much for that look on a marble.

I like the first two best. They are all very colorful and fun. Good work.

you did ask for opinions. That being said I am not a real fan of them either. To me they are just a mass of colors spread out on the surface with no pattern or balance. Not your best work.

That’s the never ending question. To polish or not? I am no expert on the subject but it looks to me that your marble needs more than just polish. I think a lot of glass will be removed to get to a smooth surface and that will not only reduce the size but also remove some of the color and pattern. It is a rare size but for me I would be more concerned about the color you may grind away.

I love the color combination of #4 that purple and orange really works for me. great job!

here are a couple I have.

they are all right at 19/32" and do not fluoresce.

There are several types of pontils found on handmades. three of the more common are melted, ground, and what is commonly believed to be the oldest is ground faceted. If you look closely at this style you will see the pontil is ground at several angles giving it a clean finished look. this obviously took a better craftsman and more time than simply grinding it off. it is believed that the earlier makers used this method. as time went on they started just quickly grinding them off and then even later it is believed as the demand of production increased they began to squish the heated pontil on a flat surface as a finish and did away with grinding giving us a melted pontil. This is the accepted progression but not really any absolute proof of all this. The faceted pontil marbles do tend to be valued a little higher on the market.

since I had my camera out today I figured I would take some photos of my little collection of caged handmades. these four ribbon core are all older faceted pontil. great craftsmanship for this old of marbles. a couple of pewees measuring just 15/32. and a few of my favorite color combination's.

These are variants of the gray base rainbows. left to right, the first three are opaque the fourth one will show light through it when backlight. it does glow pinkish red but I think it is picking up color from the red ribbons. either way it is a cool looking marble and a little uncommon.

This is one of my favorite displays. ya I really like that john deer green on yellow.can't really tell from this photo but that wasp is rare black on transparent red. The endless variety of rainbows is sure fun though.

very nice group! really like the white with the thin brown ribbons