wvrons

Master

Berry B. , Bruce your second picture the two on the left are Vitro Tiger Eye marbles. Their construction is different than Parrots. The Tiger eyes have a ribbon or band around the center with patches on each side. The Parrots are swirled or patches side by side all over the marble. Parakeets are just smaller size Parrots. Blaine Lemon Vitro plant manager told me his goal for a Parrot. Parrots were his favorite Vito marble. He said his goal was a white base 7/8 size marble with four colors not counting the white. The goal was a patch type but the larger size is more difficult to hold the patch pattern so many of them swirled. You see many swirl pattern on lots of larger Vitros. Blaine also said that of course many of the Parrots did have some white showing. The ones with no white showing are the better ones. The aventurine in some the Parrots was not planned. The 3/4 size are just the same glass and on a smaller size machine or set of rollers. Of course if problems happened on the 7/8 machine, they would just switch to a 3/4 machine and keep the glass flowing. There are a few but very few 5/8 size Parakeets. These are all 7/8 size.

Bruiser

Looks like damaged Cairo Novelty or Heaton to me.

The green base and blue is Akro. The green and orange/yellow is Vitro. Not a Parakeet. Not a Pea. Sweet pea, black eyed pea and Chic pea, None of these three. Each of the three Vitro peas are different color combinations. The large one is Alley.

Champion Furnace marbles for sure.

Top probably Ravenswood. Left Heaton. Center is Heaton Rotten Robin. Right is Alley. Bottom is Alley.

Looks like older Jabo classic to me.

All digs are good unless it is 98F or 10F degrees, a snake every half hour, heavy rain, bees, a foot or leg in a cast, and more. 1000 marbles are better than one. But most digs are good no matter what you find or how much. I turned down a dig for marbles today. But I have done it every year, sometimes a hundred days a year, for the last 20-25 years, in three states. Good luck !

The first marbles which old collectors told me was a Blue Zebra was a NLR opaque bright white base with ribbons full of blue aventurine. With thick aventurine which is dark blue until it gets out near the edges of the ribbons and it is bright blue aventurine. I had two but sold both of them a few years back.

Not a Blue Zebra. Just a Zebra. If you see a true Blue Zebra there are no doubts.

I agree with from Heaton.

Sure is. Several were dug at the Akro site, sizes from 5/8 to 7/8 inch. Nola got five or six maybe more from one antique shop in Weston WV just south of Clarksburg and Akro.

Very few marble companies had true opaque black glass. But Akro is one who did and they made Popeyes with true black. I have see at least a dozen or more. I sold a Popeye hybrid with true black on Ebay a few months ago. It went to well known long time 40 years collector. It was found in a quart jar of marbles at a antique shop in PA by Griff with three others that matched it. Of course not found by me. All went to different homes.

The 9 twist pattern can tell you it was hand gathered. But not by a certain maker. Many US marble companies started with making hand gathered slags. Some are MFC, Navarre, Akro, Peltier, several were in Ohio. Along with the US were other countries like Japan, Asia and others. Some hand gathered slags can be identified but many are still a guess.

Tough ones. Left probably Alley. Top center very well could be Ravenswood. Far right Ravenswood or Alley.

I think you called it 100% correct. Except you left of Nice. Nice hybrid Vitro yellow jacket. Extra color around the center.

Good eye !!!!!!!! I was wondering if anyone would notice or question it. Vitro made two different types of Blackies. The older ones have a nice white base with bright colors, same color on each side or pole. No bleed, better quality. But as time went on with competition cost had to be cut. Then Vitro made later Blackies with a cheap almost black base and different color stripe around the center. Older Blackies Later Blackies . Called Reverse Blackies by collectors. These are reverse of older Blackies. Black base with colored ribbon around the middle or center.

Center one is Alley.

That is a newer bag and I don't see much in marbles. I cold not get $10.00.

Were the bottles made in the USA ? Or did the USA companies use bottles made in the UK and elsewhere ?

You are correct I did have things backwards. Akro bought Westite molds. Good thing someone is watching me. Thanks for keeping things correct.

Some USA companies did the veneer process as competition came along. Vitro and Marble King were a couple of the early ones to do it. I can get the date but it started with them around the late 1950's or early 1960's. Marble King still does it today. It saves on the amount of color added for each marble.