shiroaiko

@Ric I agree with you. Seike’s marbles really do show a wide variety. They are a reflection of both his passion and the times he lived through. He made marbles over a long period, facing many changes—like the depression in the early Showa era, the war, material shortages, and trade restrictions. He had his ups and downs, and all of that reflected in his marbles. Some of his marbles are beautiful, but after the war, there are also pieces that don't look as good, due to the high content of recycled cullet. I’m not sure whether those were exported or not. It seems that his company ceased operations around 1959. One main reason (except for his age) was a sudden surge in marble production. A newcomer to the industry, who initially knew almost nothing about marble making, struggled with his new equipment. He asked an engineer named Yasuaki Hosoi to help improve the system. Hosoi turned out to be the right man. The improved system was a great success, and other factories quickly followed. Production grew nearly tenfold in a short time. Overproduction led to a price collapse, and only a few survived. The impact was worldwide; marble makers in Europe and America also shut down. (I will post a translation of Hosoi's memoir in the near future.) I’ve mainly collected marbles from Japan, the UK, and Germany, so I’m sure I can learn a lot from you about WV swirls. Thanks again for sharing your thoughts.

Hello everyone, it’s noon here in Japan, and I’m back on the forum. I figured my earlier post might stir a confusion... For now, the safest approach would be to study marbles that are still in their original packaging. That’s where we can gather the most reliable clues. For that, we’ll need the help of those who own such boxes. I need your help, @Ric. Once we’ve studied more, we may be able to recognize what was likely made by Veiligglas, Seike, or ... Hopf, but only by comparing them closely with well-preserved original examples. As for why Japanese marbles were labeled “foreign” before and after the war, Steph's thread “Fairylite... German? American?” has some good background on that. I posted about it there last year. I also talked about toy companies like Cowan de Groot and Graham Bros. in “1951 Duck Marble Advertisement for Domestic Market (Side A)”. Feel free to check them out! I also would like to hear from @Mojo and say hello. ----- @akroorka Oops! I didn't see your warning when I posted! I will delete this post on your request.

@Ric That is a good idea.😃 @davesnothere I also look forward to the photos. 🫧✨ @akroorka when I use the term wirepull, I meant swirls that were thought to be made in Europe. I didn't know the definition until recently, til I read wvron's post giving the explanation. I closely looked at the photo of Dave's, enlarging it to the maximum. My overall impression is that the group has many swirls/wirepulls with wispy striations. To compare, I joined two photos. Roberto's bolitas japonesas box is on the left and Dave's wirepulls are on the right. We see two swirls in light tan in the original box and one in Dave's. Below are individual photos Roberto shared with me. They are great closeups. Have fun looking at the details. Here's another set of photos. This time Dave's marbles are on the left. Please look at the hiding marble that I circled in pink. My eyes kind of attracted to the one. It has a little bit of blue mixed in white. You see this kind in a smaller bolitas japonesas box which holds only 9 marbles. Again, the image is from Roberto. He couldn't remember which source he found it. FYI below are some original boxes of Seike's which have "foreign" country of origin. I started a thread titled "Seike's 1936 Wirepull Invention" at another marble forum in 2022, where I did line-to-line translation of his utility model right. All the photos were contributions of @Nantucketdink there. These boxes are probably well-known to the people who are interested in wirepulls. Some part of the consensus of Veiligglas wirepulls has been made around these boxes. Now it is time to study these marbles one by one. At the end I share 3 marble photos from wvron. Back then he was the owner of the bolitas japonesas box. Marbles look a bit different when the photographer is different. 😃

@Ric @davesnothere Fibrous wiggles make me think they are Seike's... Below was my answer when I had an inquiry from @YasudaCollector some time ago. And also two of the local finds which also have that trait.

Thanks, Dave! I feel that would be one too. The fine thread of intricate wiggles and the big bubble would point in that direction. Identifying exactly what’s Seike is still really difficult. The world would be simple if there were only one maker, but there were at least three for Euro swirls. We really need more originals— Bolitas Japonesas, Fairylite pieces, “foreign”-marked ones, and pre-war examples, to compare with other maker's.

@Ric Thank you so much for your comment...late or not doesn't matter! 😃I appreciate that you took the time to look so closely at the photos. It’s rewarding to know someone enjoyed them. The marble you mentioned is one that belonged to the Fairylite box. I'm sure to pass your words to Roberto soon. He is such a generous man, he always shares his marble photos with me. About the development of Cat’s Eyes...back in those days, the competition among makers was intense. Creative inventions came out of rivalry, and they grew together through the competition. Then, there was a marble makers’ association, and the head was Isogami. He kind of represented the newcomers in the industry, while Seike was more of a pioneer and a loner. You might think Seike would naturally have taken the lead, but that wasn’t the case. The first association was actually formed by newer makers who wanted to buy color glass and other materials in bulk and split the cost. Seike, on the other hand, was independent. He ran his own factory and made everything himself, so he didn’t really need to rely on anybody. I believe Seike eventually joined the association because the government wanted to unify the industry. When that happened, the organization became naturally divided into two groups. Later, when wartime industry reform was first planned, the marble industry was supposed to be reduced to two factories—one run by Seike and his allies, and the other by Isogami and his group. But as Japan’s war situation and financial situation worsened, only one factory was allowed to survive. In the end, it was Seike’s side that remained, while Isogami and the others had to leave. All of the marble-making equipment and patents were passed to Seike’s group and used for marble production during the war.

@Ric Yes. Your observation is right, the seams are different. Yesterday I asked another marble peer the same question, and he also answered that would be Asian made. They are probably Taiwanese! 😃✨

My talk this time is about Seike's cat's eye invention. Below is a translation of his patent article. Japanese Utility Model Showa 14 No.9082. Filing Date: March 3, 1938. Publication Date: June 15 1939. Applicant / Inventor: Naoyuki Seike Device for Mixing Colors in Glass Summary: This utility model features a glass furnace equipped with a glass chamber (1) and an outlet (3). Positioned close to this outlet (3) is the lower end of a rotating glass feed tube (4), which functions as a passage for molten glass. One or more discharge openings (6) are drilled into the sidewall near the bottom end of the tube to release the glass. Article: In this invention, molten glass from the main glass chamber (1) is discharged through an outlet (3). At this discharge, the lower end of a rotating glass feed tube (4) is positioned so that a stream of colored glass can also flow out from its own outlet (6). As a result, at the point of convergence (3), the steady steam of clear molten glass from the chamber and the narrow colored stream from the rotating feed tube become integrated under a rotating motion, allowing the colored glass to spiral delicately within the main flow and be discharged in that mixed state. And when the discharge openings (6) are made as two or more, it becomes possible to achieve a more varied and colorful result in terms of color mixing. Therefore, this invention has a simple structure yet produces beautifully blended colored glass, making it highly effective for practical applications such as the manufacturing of glass marbles. In this invention, if necessary, the interior of the glass supply tube may be divided, allowing different colored glasses to be supplied and flow down respectively. ******* I think Seike was probably trying to make marbles with internal spirals, like the ones we see in old German handmade marbles, using this device. That is why he designed the inner tube to rotate. But to get a proper spiral inside a marble which is less than two cm across, the tube would need to spin really fast. I don't think that was possible back then, and not even today. Spinning a tube that is submerged in molten glass at high speed sounds difficult, even with modern advanced technology. As many of people here probably notice, the basic system here is actually the same as the one for making cat's eye marbles. After trying out this setup for numbers of times, he would eventually end up creating cat's eyes instead of spiral marbles. Tatsukichi isogami filed his cat's eye patent on March 11, 1938. But Seike filed his on March 3 of the same year, 8 days earlier. Isogami wrote about the details of the device he used to make cat's eyes in his article. Then, just two months later, on May 24, 1938, he filed another utility model. This time, it wasn't about the machine itself, but about defining the design of cat's eye marbles. It's not really common to first patent the device and the separately file something just to define the look of what it makes. In my opinion, he did this because Seike had already managed to make cat's eye marbles using a machine of his own design. Since Seike's utility model was filed earlier, Isogami couldn't claim Seike had copied his invention. Instead, he tried to protect the appearance of the marbles, to make sure no one else could legally make marbles of the same kind. I don't think Seike wanted to make the exact same kind of marbles as Isogami. Many of Seike's cat's eyes have a twist to them. That probably reflects not only his experimenting nature, but also an intention not to copy Isogami's work. For example, there are marbles with as many as 12 vanes, or with hybrid vanes in mixed colors. Some are hybrids, combining internal vane structure with ribbon or patch marble designs. Some have two-toned base glass. Others feature jelly vanes or softly-translucent alabaster vanes. In some, the base glass is colored while the vanes themselves are white. I think Seike's internal vane structure actually started from here. Seike just kept going with his own idea and tried all sorts of new things. I think the cats with many vanes came after the war, but the stripey cats might have been from pre-war time to post-war periods. Below is an example of stripeys in a pre-war assortment of glass toys.

I agree with Mojo anf Ric. Mine measures 25 mm, and it is with a distinct orange peel texture too. Yellow is almost disappearing. This is an English lot it belongs to. I wonder who made these two. The orange peel texture can be felt for them too, although the feel is subtle.

@davesnothere @akroorka We exported glass bottles to the world in the early years. When I was searching for marble-related information, I came across to Osaka Bottle Works (Osaka Seibinsho), a manufacturer and exporter of various kinds of bottles and marbles. It was established in 1907 (Meiji 40), and once monopolized 80% of Japan’s total exports of beverage bottles. Here are some information on them. An advertisement of the bottle company. The circled B is their trademark. "Shina (China) Yearbook, Second Edition" (1917) Edited and Published by: East Asia Common Culture Society, Research and Compilation Division According to "Complete Collection of Japanese Registered Trademarks, Series 7, Volume 1" (1915), the trademark was registered in April 1914. Their bottles had a B embossed on the bottom? I first saw the entry of Osaka Bottle Works in connection with marbles in "Export Product Purchasing Guide, 1919–1920" . "Export Product Purchasing Guide, 1919–1920" Edited by Morio Shinkai Published by Kawase Nisshindō Bookstore November, 1919 (Taishō 😎 The list says the company is "the mfrs. of Glass Bottles and Glass Marbles". The Japanese reads 硝子瓶及瓶玉, or Glass Bottles and Bottle-stopper Marbles. Under the bottle company is the name of Owi Tokujiro. He was the person who left a record of the earliest glass marble export in the country (1915), and I believe his product was toy marbles with a design. His main products were glass bangles for India, mercury beads, fake-pearls and other kinds of glass beads. Other entries which are also available in English; To add something important, the proper name for the books appears to be "The Japan Mercantile & Manufacturers' Directory and Private Residents' List" by A. Cameron & Co. Ltd. I don't understand why we have double names for a book. I also found a factory photograph! It operates a factory covering a site area of approx. 9,900 m² (106,000 sq ft), with buildings occupying 6,600 m² (71,000 sq ft)...employing over 800 workers. . From "General History of the European Great War and Peace Commemoration: With an Appendix on the Glass Industry During the War" (1919) This company was one of the leading pioneers in the bottle manufacturing industry besides Tokunaga. They introduced Siemens-type regenerative furnaces and dramatically increased production efficiency. In one month, it produces 1.5 million bottles for beer and carbonated spring water (including Ramune bottles for export), as well as 25,000 acid-resistant bottles and 250,000 perfume bottles (using crucible furnaces). Later on, Osaka Glass Bottle Works purchased a partial usage right to the Hartford-type furnace from Tokunaga, who held the exclusive rights in Japan. This advance allowed the company to shift from a system in which only raw materials were melted during the night, to a continuous operation where bottles could be produced both day and night. Due to the high quality of its products, the company has gained a strong reputation in markets around the world. As a result, only a small portion of its products are supplied domestically, while the remaining 90% are entirely exported—mainly to destinations such as British India, French India, the South Seas Islands, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Africa, and Great Britain.

Do you try translating the text, word by word? Feel free to ask me for a help. I'm happy to assist. 😃🐈✨

Kitty Cucumber is so adorable! 🥰🫧✨ Do you enjoy the book?

@davesnothere I think we all learn from each other—I'm still learning every day. And I still have lots more to share. I was wondering if you are interested in other patents Naoyuki Seike made. @akroorka I asked my collector friend who has one Tokunaga bottle. It is a rarity. He was happy to send us photos. It's a 1922 bottle. The letter ト/to is the first letter of Tokunaga. I don't know many things about this company, so I cannot explain what N. K. K. stands for. Although Takakichi passed away the next year he made marble stopper bottles, he had 3 sons and they succeeded in the glass business. According to my friend, Tokunaga bottles only have one style. Comparison. The right one reads Codd Bottle Co. All Japanese and vintage. We still use marble-stopper bottles, but the current version comes with a plastic screw cap. That means you can remove the marble without breaking the bottle. The all-glass type is now extinct.

@davesnothere You're welcome. Since slags are made with jst two colors, they cannot be compared to handmades in terms of visual appeal. But I'm always impressed by how perfectly round they are. The makers/machinery had a high level of precision and consistency in their work.

I agree with everyone. The marbles look to be Taiwanese to me too. They tend to have a blank spot at the pole. The soft grayish tones of blue and green are soothing colors. 🫧✨