shiroaiko

You're welcome!☺️🙏

Hi Jim, thanks for your question! Naoyuki Seike began marble production in 1924 (Taishō 13) when he started his marble factory in Hanaten, Osaka. His method was a Western-style process: hand-gathered glass that was machine-rolled. In that sense, his marbles were technically similar to Western Transitionals. His pontils are thought to be spidery crease pontils. Other makers, such as Yasuda is thought to make pinch pontils, and Nakanishi made fire-polished transitionals with smoother finish on his pontils (Showa8/1933 Utility Model-18246). Before this method, marbles were made differently in Japan. Bottle-stopper clearies and marbles with pattern were produced mainly by lampworking, not by furnace gathering and machine rolling. These were flame-worked products. The first successful production of marble stoppers for bottles in Japan dates back to 1892 (Meiji 25). This was achieved by Tamakichi Tokunaga, the owner of a bottle factory in Osaka. After about five years of experimentation, he succeeded, but he died suddenly, and the work was later taken over by his four sons. One of them, YoshijiroTokunaga, filed a patent in 1910 (Registered Utility Model No. 17091) titled “Jewel/Bead/Marble Manufacturing Furnace.” Despite the word “kamado/furnace,” the illustration shows a cover designed to shield a burner flame to improve efficiency, again pointing to lampworking rather than a Western furnace-based hot work process. Among Japanese glass toy collectors, the earliest marbles are commonly known as heso-dama (“navel marbles”). In this method, artisans first made a glass stringer. A small amount of softened glass was then heated and wound around the stringer tip about 2–3 mm from the end. Once a roughly spherical marble shape was formed, the stringer was snap-cut very close to its base. The flat snap-cut mark is what we call the heso (“navel”). Because a stringer is thin, it cannot withstand the massive heat of a glass furnace, so it can be only used for lampworking. This same stringer-based technique can be seen not only in early marbles, but also in other early glass toys such as ohajiki and glass gourds netsuke.

Hi, @aussie😃 The last picture shows a diminishing hand gathered tail. I'd say it is a transitional, possibly Japanese, but the rough surface makes the pontil hard to read. My largest transitionals are just over 1 inch, around 27-8 mm.

@Alta, happy to be a help. You are very welcome. 😃

Hi everyone.😃 I agree with the opinions here. I have a Japanese transitional in the same color and style. It came from an original box saying "GLASS MARBLES BIG VALUE EICO N.Y.", which I got from Brian Graham when we traded marbles years ago. He asked me to find the information about the box, but so far I haven't been able to find anything. The green one measures 15.4 mm/ 0.61 inch.

@Parmcat You're welcome! 😃

Thanks for including me. I agree with Chad too. These look like Yasudas, or Japanese transitionals. Just to add, crease pontils are typical of Seike, the largest marble maker in pre-war Japan.

I would say that is a typical Seike. Both the pattern and the glass are characteristic. Sometimes his green glass has dark green bits in it. The marble in question looks to have some. Below are examples from the UK, the largest destination of Seike marbles.

You can also find some identical marbles in the image Ric shared in this post.

I haven't come across any Wale's variegated marbles that are single colored. They always come in more than two colors combined with white. The marbles in question look more like Matsuno's pinchers.

Hi, Alta, thanks for your comment and questions! 😃 What I meant in my earlier post was Naoyuki Seike made Wale's variegated marbles. Sorry if I wasn't clear before. As for # 4, I'm also not sure about it when I look at the cutline. Maybe Seike? Matsuno's yellow/orange pinchers are usually 3 layers, with the yellow or orange sandwiched between clear. You can tell this when you closely look at the poles. They also come in peewee size, and I haven't come across larger ones yet... Seike's veneered marbles are two layers: a colored surface and a clear base. Which do you think the marble in question looks more like?

@akroorka Thanks! Then I was not the only one who felt a bit lazy yesterday. 😃 @Ric Do you mean you play with the very Chinese Checker marbles as a child? If it is so, what year was it? I also have Matsuno marbles which just look like "Mt. Fuji with the sun". They are fun. @tkt Thanks, seikes are also nice-looking marbles! Although I don't have one in my collection, some appear to come with green aventurine.

I acquired an original bag of pinchers recently. It was actually a gift from @chigasaki_seaglass (Instagram) when I purchased some marbles from him. The brand was Camel/Matsuno from Osaka. This was the first time I’d seen pinchers in this packaging. They were mixed with other common types of Matsuno cats such as white cross-throughs and 4-vanes with a center opening. They are all peewees ranging from 12 to 13 mm. The poly bag has a slit which was caused by age deteriaration, so the marbles are taken out from this opening. The below is a package for export which houses slightly larger 13-14 mm Chinese Checker Marbles. Something nice is the black ones show a cool kind of purple when light comes through. Another type of veneered marble that is made in Osaka is Seike's. They commonly have tiny white bits in the white, and the cutlines are somewhat different from Camel pinchers as you can see. I also have some good pictures of Wale's variegated marbles that were kindly shared with me by @Pinx some time ago, but I haven't asked permission to post them yet🙏 (just being lazy.)

The marble looks like a Figure 8 to me. The same color is often used for transitionals. Here are my examples, but the ones @I'llhavethat1 shared already make great references!

This Seike's ribbon/patch marble was found by a local beachcomber a few days ago. The photo is by mimitutu424 on Instagram. A Mercari listing that sold out within minutes earlier today. Who was the lucky person? One of my SNS followers kindly let me know about it but I was too late to grab it. The seller ニコ is the same person who previously shared Rupert the Chick Picture Puzzle information that held Seike transitionals.