TootlesMarbles

I haven't heard of South American marbles before, I figured they just bought them from America or Europe. I saw South American marbles briefly mentioned in the forum here, but they turned out to be American marbles, is there a specific thread where I could learn more about the history of marble making in Argentina and South America?

Sorry, some of the photos got mixed up, but I named them in groups, so you can see multiple views of the marbles I selected. I think there were nearly 400 marbles in this collection, I will take more individual photos soon.

There were some Veiligglas wire pulls mixed in with the lot too, some of them were in rougher shape than others, mostly near mint, and a few react to UV light intensely. There were some tiny cats-eye marbles mixed in as well, I sorted them into their own bag. Some of the dirt-embedded marbles appear to be dig finds, but they look pretty unusual too.

Here are some better photos in sunlight, I included a few closeups of the individual marbles too. These are in the Master Marble style, some mention in the comments that these could be made in Argentina, I haven't heard about Argentinian marbles in this style, maybe they got hold of a machine from the USA. There are other marble styles mixed in too, I tried to pull the dig-finds and cats-eyes out of the nicer marbles. Wondering if I should split the collection up or try to sell it together as a lot?

I will take more pictures in natural light within the next couple of days, I will try to include some close-ups too.

I recently had a business trip to Buenos Aires, Argentina, in South America, and on the last couple days of my trip, I had my business partner's mother direct us to the antique/thrift area of the city. There, in an alley pavilion with hardly a roof put over it, I managed to find some marbles in South America. I have been on the hunt for unique marble collections for the last ten years, after discovering their art and historic value, I have been fascinated to find many marble collections over time. This one though, is very unusual to me, since I found it in Argentina, and it seems to be a very old. I believe these are mostly Master Marbles from the 1930s. I found them in an old Van Cleef & Arpels Paris box, with a purple felt-lined jewelry box inside, with some marbles that had already been sorted. Bedded beneath the box, was a loose-marble collection of various tyles, swirls and slags, I only barely sorted them in zip-lock bags, but the photos I am sharing is of the unpicked collection, I only cleaned some of the mud and dust from the marbles. I think there might be value selling this as a collection, rather than one marble at a time, so I am showing you a 'raw' find, I haven't picked through this collection at all, it's just sorted and cleaned, and I'm wondering if there might be a story behind how all these amazing marbles managed to get down to Buenos Aires. I took some photos, under normal and UV light. The marbles in the jewelry box are highly reactive, the slags and swirls in the zip-lock bags not-so-much, but I plan on taking more photos soon. I would love to know more about these marbles, to perhaps preserve them as a collection, before I might star selling them individually? Thank you for your feedback, I will wait a while to make an educated decision about the collection . . . I might need to pay for another trip to Buenos Aires soon though, so let me know. Chao!