Iain P

Interesting.... So, modern handmade then? That's disappointing! Here's a few more from the same collection, maybe this will help settle it. There's a small "core" in these:

Here's a very attractive one from my recent "German hand-made" car boot find. What shall I call it please??

Thanks William, yes I can't believe I've 'ignored' marbles for decades! We go to car boot sales virtually every week here in the UK in Summer; I wonder how much good stuff I've missed. Well it won't happen again... Iain

Thanks Alan, I wondered about that ghostly core!

Thanks Jon 😉 Yes, it's interesting seeing the other discussions on marble ID here, where it's not always obvious even to the experts what it is! Iain

Ok. I'm now onto my 4th attempt at marble ID, but seem to be getting worse at it.... It's another, I suppose, German handmade late 1800s marble, but I don't know what to make of that core. It's not a lattice core is it? It's a rather lovely looking one anyway. Thanks again, Iain

Well this is my third attempt at marble ID, after "discovering" marbles 2 weeks ago. I'm surprised to find I'm still not an expert yet 😊 This is another from the small jar I found at a car boot sale on Sunday. The previous 6 have been identified by your good selves as German handmade from late 1800s to early 1900s, so this is presumably the same era, but the design is different to the others. It swirls and doesn't have a core so my first guess is Coreless swirl, but it also looks rather like some Joseph's Coats I've seen here too, or do Joseph's Coats not have all the clear glass between the colours? It's around 3/4" in diameter. Thanks, Iain

Thanks all! I'm very pleased to have some "proper" antique marbles. Will show the others here tomorrow.

Hi all again. After discovering my "first" marble by accident at the car boot sale last week, and getting help and encouragement here on the forum, I got hooked, and went back this week hunting for marbles, and got a small jar full for just £1. There's about 20 all together, 5 of which even I recognise as "normal" ones, and not worth showcasing here, but the rest are quite interesting, to me anyway, and I'd love some help IDing them and getting some idea of their age, origin, etc. I've grouped them into what I think are different types, so here goes with the first 6. They are all around 3/4" diameter, though they are surprisingly irregular in shape: I'm going to guess they are banded swirls? And the pontil marks confirm them as handmade, so they are quite old? One side of most of them have these very rough marks. I don't know if this is due to damage or how they were made. Here's a particularly rough one: Most have an obvious single raised line on them, where they were cut off after being formed, I assume. Some have elongated air bubbles in them. I don't know if this is normal or not: And this one has a huge bubble all the way though the centre line: They look super in the sunlight anyway. And my wife was "delighted" to find me using her antique silver sugar tongs. This one shows the "non-rough" top of the marble, and also an odd line running through the centre, which only appears on this one marble, making me think it's an artefact of production rather than by design: Thanks for looking; more to follow soon. Iain

Thanks Steph, that nicely fits in with the date of most of the items in the job lot.

How interesting. I'd assumed that was just damage. So that's a Crease Pontil then? (Look at me; a newbie yesterday, but 24 hours later using all the terminology 😉 Does this help date the marble at all, or least set an earliest / latest date range? Iain

Good advice, and it's ironic that you mention musket balls: I put it on a brick on the lawn and when I hit it with the hammer the first time, it shot off across the garden and hit my wife in the foot as she was hanging out the washing. No harm done, and she's talking to me again. It must have travelled at least 10 feet, parallel to the ground, only 5 inches above the grass, quite an achievement...

I kept tapping two red ones together, and they made the unmistakable sound of glass on glass. The more I tapped, the more I was convinced. To prove I was right, I took a hammer to one (I'm sure that's frowned upon here, but there are more red than black so it didn't feel too bad) and here is the vindication. For you, not me, sadly 😉 .

Thank you both for the welcome and the information! Yes, I'll be searching for marbles from now on. I'm hooked.

Hi all, I bought a box of items at a car boot sale yesterday (a bargain at £4 the lot) for the vintage games and the playing cards. Only later did I open the metal tin to find the glass marbles, and as a complete newbie, I have no idea what kind they are. The oldest set of playing cards dates from the 1890s, so it would be great if the marbles were as old as that, though the other set is c1930, as are the games. Having spent a happy hour here on the forum, I can already feel the marble collecting bug coming on, so any information about these would be very welcome. I'm assuming the opaque black and red ones are quite ordinary - though I never saw marbles like this before: but the blue looks a lot more interesting. The central dark piece in the blue one is a bit of an oddity too. They measure around 5/8". Thanks, Iain