LevvyPoole

It turns out these come up fairly regularly, in fact I just went on Ebay and spotted this one. Prices seem to vary, but for £10.60 including postage I couldn't resist. Ahem, it's for research purposes obviously 🙄,  and I think it definitely looks like it's stocked with what we are now discussing as potentially Hopf marbles.

I think that it's quite important to note, that about half of my wirepull marbles came with the boxed Gibson solitaire board. I had sought this out after reading that veiligglas were the marbles that came with this particular board. I don't know what others can contribute to this, but I'm now pretty sure this information might actually be incorrect. 

I bought it on Ebay, and unfortunately don't have the original listing picture, however I do have a photo I took using it to display the wirepulls that I had at the time. When I purchased it, about 5 of the marbles had been replaced by cats. I used my existing marbles to restock it and displayed my spares around the game board. So I assume this picture must have approximately 25 of the original marbles that were supplied with the board. I hope this is useful information. 

After some closer examination, this group is the ones that I know think may actually be Hopf. I'll try and do some close ups of individual marbles another day. 

Earlier today, in an opportune patch of sunlight, I grouped mine by colour. The clears group has 2 pictures as I was trying to show the back row better. These are all the ones (ranging from just over 9/16 to just under 3/4), that I'd attributed to veiligglas. 

11 minutes ago, TheVacorFan said:

That doesn't sound like a bad idea. I'd name that thread "Hopf vs Veiligglas - information about Wirepulls" or something similar.

That sounds like a plan, I'm happy to start it,  but can't for a couple of hours, so if anyone else wants to go first, go for it. 

54 minutes ago, TheVacorFan said:

Should I post my Wirepulls? I have quite a few (and a good variety of sizes, from 5/8" to ~1"), so maybe we can have a decent sample size to analyse...

I'm going to. I was wondering whether a new thread should be started or to add them to this discussion?

More interesting research to work with, I look forward to reading this properly later today. I've got about 50 that I've attributed to veiligglas, but there's definitely a few that I didn't feel quite right about, so I'll enjoy sorting through and seeing whether any I pull out lead here. Being in the UK it's almost impossible to buy mixed vintage lots without ending up with some lovely "wirepulls".

3/4 really nice looking marble.

Very slight roughness to the feel of the glass. I don't quite know what a good term to describe the look of the outside surface, but I suppose it has very tight, fine striations to it.

Slightly OOR. I've done my best with the pictures...

10 hours ago, akroorka said:

Ragnar was a barn cat that kept creeping inside of where he previously lived to beat up the house cat.

I took him in just because of the chipmunk invasion. I kept him in a crate for two weeks in the garage--of course I took care of him--after that I let him out and walked him around the yard, he followed me around like a dog listening to what I had to say. He was an orange "Tabby". He defended his ground but just played with the chipmnks and let them go..My prevoius 0range "Tabby"--Larry--was a much better hunter--he ate them.

Now--today at least, we have a rescue center about 500 yards from our house. They fix strays and then let them go.. There are plenty of cats around for sure.

I Have three dogs and cats are not in my future.

I remember a young Vet telling my that Larry/Ragnar sounded more like a tool than a pet. They were both for sure. These two cats, even though they lived in the garage or outside were two of the few animals that I trusted with my grandkids--so gentle!

This is a lovely story to hear. 

I understand the 'tool' description. When Kitten passed on, she was an elderly, senile, arthritic cat. By that time I was living in an inner city flat and within a few weeks I was overrun with mice. I'd had no idea what a great job she'd been doing! I never realised I would have to obtain a cat for working purposes, so off to the rescue place we went. 

In the past few years I've fostered strays for a local rescue, and that's where our scaredy cat came from. All my life I've wanted a dog, however that would not go down well at all with the current cats, so maybe in about 15 years or so I'll get to go down that route...

On 4/23/2025 at 11:23 PM, akroorka said:

Ohh, I have owned many Cats--or they have owned me----.
My last cat,“Ragnar” put a fox down like he was a lion. 
Pretty cool to see it happening—I watched for a while and then I scared the fox off—the fox barked at me like I was the asshole—Ragnar was ready to kick his ass.
I love cats—nuff said.
 

They are wonderful creatures. I also remember seeing the one that I had in my teens seeing off a fox in our garden. Your Ragnar had a much more heroic sounding name that her though - she ended up named 'Kitten' until she passed on, aged 21. 

I always seem to end up with black and white ones for some reason and have 2 at the moment. One of which is very skittish, but switches into hunter mode when she sees a squirrel. She rushes out of the back door to chase it, then suddenly realises she's outside and scurries back in. 

On 4/4/2025 at 12:29 PM, davesnothere said:

😃 finally signs of spring are here!

My garlic is looking good some Chive and a Iris 

Now the work starts I have a 1/4 of food and shrubs to attend to.

Love those little Iris flowers. And having a nosy round people's gardens. I actually work as a gardener, not that you can tell from my own garden! I sneak good stuff in, here and there, but try not to get too precious about most bits, as they inevitably get crushed by a ball or clumsy foot...

Interesting stuff growing in the garden today, just set up my annual hunt for my 2 kids. Oldest is nearly 10, wondering how many more years he'll want me to do this for? I hope it's lots. 

Walnut for the right hand board, table rubber wood, left hand top - oak, left bottom maple?

Definitely a marble on my wish list and I'll heed the warning @Ric if I ever think I've spotted one.

After a quick initial inspection, the ones in the bowl have highly visible AV, there are small amounts on some of the others and the condition of most of them is pretty good. Overall very happy with these, cost me about £15 including postage (no idea how this compares) and has brightened up my day, quite literally. 

Will attempt to capture some shots of the best ones, but it may take a bit of practice. 

Thanks, apart from 2, these are just ones I've ended up with from mixed ebay lots.

I tried sorting them into similar groups according to size/amount of colours/seam present the other day but I couldn't make a lot of sense of them, so put them all back together for now.

This is my current collection, about to be boosted by today's post (when it arrives), will update this post later if I've scored some good ones...

I had to work a little get them. Original listing had ended, so I looked at relisted item, saw the price had been reduced but that one had also ended, so I emailed seller and said I'd like to buy, they put them up, I bid then they ended it with me as winner. 

Don't really know what condition they will be in but it looks like there will be some nice ones. 

Sorry @davesnothere for hijacking your thread!

This thread prompted me to have another look at an Ebay lot that I spotted a couple of weeks ago. They were originally up for £20, which I thought too much, but price had now dropped to £12.99 so I went for them... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/187140919546?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=nQpzZPSISuS&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=cjbdL6h6Ree&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

2 hours ago, shiroaiko said:

Thanks for letting me join, @akroorka😃

I identify them as German seam slags. Colors and style match.  Something unique to this maker is peachy pink. 

In 2023 Nov. I came across an eBay listing which identified the slags as Seppenhütte product. Since I never heard of the maker‘s name, I asked the seller if the information came from a reliable source. 

The response; the seller‘s uncle served as the second boss at the glasswork, and the seller played with the marbles as a child. 

The machine-rolled Striped Transparents were only a newer product to them. The marbles from Seppen Hütte were almost exclusively handmades using marble scissors before 1945. They were mainly clambroths and banded opaques. The original marble machine was scrapped around 1976. 
 

 

 

Thanks again for sharing some more well researched knowledge!

On 4/1/2025 at 10:25 PM, davesnothere said:

@akroorka lol starting to think you work in sales .. thanks for theoffer i still have 20k or so european iand asian im sorting., At the moment. 

 

Not so much the sorting i like doing but its the hunt for them im hooked on.

Maybe I'll keep dropping oddball  brain teasers to keep us entertained 

Wife's pissed we never eat at the table anymore 

 

Judging by this photo, I take it you don't own a cat!?

8 minutes ago, duotone said:

"V" shape in second photo and colors seem more Vitro than Marble King in my opinion.

I did originally think vitro, but am stuck in between, looks like it's 1 all from outside opinions so far.

Let's see if anyone else can sway it...

7/8, sorry about the reflections, it's very shiny. 

6 minutes ago, davesnothere said:

I think these may fall into the Japanese marbles. 

I've been sorting similar ones all day yesterday and today.

Have a look at the recent posts of Seike marbles this was a game changer for me after I studied it.

Just my opinion I'm relearning everything. 

 

Thanks, they did come in a lot with a load of Japanese transitionals, so that is definitely a possibility, I'll delve deeper in that direction...

19 minutes ago, Melissa said:

European IMO

Yeah, thought a possibility for the purple one...