shiroaiko

@thaservices Right after my last post I received an email from a newspaper company from Tokyo. They are interested in my marble research because there are very few people who do researching the history of marbles. They are planning to visit me to Yamagata ( 3 hours by super express) next Tuesday. I need to be prepared for that. I'll start working on the Hosoi article after the visit. I ask you for patience. 🙏

@thaservices, thank you so much for your interest in this subject. I'll try to post the translation of Mr. Hosoi's memoir soon. The article appeared in Mechanical Engineering / 機械技術, Vol. 39, No. 4 (Issue 498), 1991, pp.111–115, titled Technology, My Life's Dedication (Part 5): Starting the Business 「技術に生きる（5）開業」 by Toshiaki Hosoi of Hosoi Kogyo Co., Ltd. The most relevant part is in the latter half, on pages 113 to 115. It illustrates how Hosoi’s invention influenced not just the Japanese marble industry, but also the global market.

@The Nickel Guy Thank you so much!😃🫶 I'm honored to receive a trophy like from you! Glad you found it interesting!

@The Nickel Guy The boxes you saw in antique shops might have held different toys...marbles or Frozen Charlottes. The circus-themed puzzle boxes originally belonged to @Joe2, who kindly gave me the opportunity to purchase them about a year ago. Later a friend from my neighborhood searched Google Images and found the boxes shown below. The puzzle boxes with bisque dolls came from the UK. The seller's mother, who collects child-related items and toys pointed out the graphic style used on kimono. It is called shibori, and the patterns are actually created by a fine tie-dye technique traditionally used on silk.

Many thanks for the pictures! I just learned from a 2023 post by @cheese on All About Marbles that this picture group originally came from a post by Steph years ago. The thread by @cheese is titled "Mushroom Type Info and Pics Thread," posted on March 11, 2023.

@Parmcat, you've got a lot of Seike marbles! As @Fire1981 mentioned, they are all Figure 8s. Speaking of Seike’s glass, his green often contains bits of dark green debris. You might also notice white sand-like particles in the opaque white. Because the white glass has a lower melting point than the transparent base, it tends to stretch and blotch on the surface. These are transitionals that correspond to your transparent Figure 8s. They were sourced from the UK, which was the biggest customer of Seike’s marbles before the war. And these are my local finds. Do you see any familiar faces?

You are welcome.😃🫶✨

I've got a marble mail from a local collector here in Japan and it included some interesting photos. According to chigasaki_seaglass (on Instagram), the screenshots were originally taken in 2019. They show listings from an auction site and he recalls the seller was an American collector. I wonder if anyone here might recognize who that was? The first box features Rupert the Chick and the Stripey Tiger, a UK comic series for young readers which ran from 1920 to 1957. All of them show the color combinations that I associate with Seike, so they are most likely crease pontils. The second box is of Reg'lar Feller's with the same kind of transitionals.

Seike did make machine-mades in the pre-war period. Below is from his earliest patent for a glass crucible designed to provide automatic glass flow from a bottom opening for marble production. Utility Model No. 2564 (Showa 6) was filed on August 7, 1930. The Duck Marble brochure (intended for the Japanese market) features a photograph of Seike’s marble-making system from around 1932. His marble rollers are constructed in layers. Instead of the spiral grooves found in standard marble machines, his use parallel grooves. This results in the distinctive tiered structure.

Thanks for your help @Ric. I also identify the marble as a pre-war Figure 8. At that time, Naoyuki Seike was producing both transitionals and machine-mades at his factory in Hanaten, Osaka. There is a correspondence in color combinations between the Figure 8s and the transitionals. His business started in 1924 and was known as “Seike Marble Works” before WWII. This advertisement appears in the 1937 edition of New Japan Trademark Directory 「新興日本商標総覧」. In May 1942, a joint company called Nippon Special Glass Ball was formed by Seike, Nakanishi, and Yanagawa. This was part of a wartime industry consolidation effort by the government. The plan was to reduce the number of marble factories to just two—one led by Seike’s group, and the other by Isogami, Yasuda and others. However, as the war situation worsened, only Seike’s group was allowed to continue, while the others were forced to shut down or shift to other business. After the war, Nippon Special Glass Ball was reorganized as a corporation in May 1948. This article from the Official Gazette was provided by Brian Graham to me in December 2021. The name 'Nippon Special Glass Ball Mfg. Co. Ltd.' is the English wording Naoyuki Seike himself used in an export brochure for the Duck Brand, which was produced around 1952. Please refer to the Marble-Related Document section for the details of the brochure.

I agree with @Ric. Thanks for letting me know, @akroorka!😃🫶✨

No problem. It happens sometimes.

@Ric Sure! Here are examples of Seike's crease pontils. Naoyuki Seike started making his first transitionals around 1924. These puzzle boxes came to me June 2024. @Joe2 Joe Valencia was the former owner of them. Seike's green often has dark green bits in it. Below is a close-up of spidery crease pontil. As for pinch pontils, I believe they were made by Yasuda. Yasuda was the third largest marble maker in my country before the war, after Seike and Isogami. His Shiba marble factory is known to be started from 1933. Ukichi Yasuda himself served as the vice-chairman of the marble makers' association. The original photo was from an eBay listing which Winnie reported back in 2015.

The examples on the photo are not the closest, but I guess it is Taiwanese.

All of the Japanese transitionals are pre-war made. The maker of crease pontils is most likely to be Seike.