wvrons

Bulgarian

Nice pictures. I took lots of macro pictures before the digital cameras came out.

White and yellow corks are easy. But total opaque white base and yellow cork is hard to find.

There are a wide range of Champion furnace marbles and the prices are the same. Correct from $5.00 to over $100.00.

Vitro Sweet Pea. Vitro Black Eyed Pea. How about the Vitro Chic Pea. I have them but no pictures on hand.

Foreign to the US. ?????

Charlie Stutsman sold these Champion marbles as Red Cloud. Before that I heard them called Hot Tamale.

That is a keeper and a rare one. Priceless.

No Oxblood ! Not Akro ! Oxblood

A transitional marble is half hand gather and half machine made . Hand gathered on a rod and then cut onto a set of machine rollers. Your marbles above are modern 100% machine made. I think you are confusing machine made marbles roll marks, defects and rejects as a pontil mark.

Left to right. #1 Champion #2 Champion #3 ? Maybe Champion #4 Champion #5 Peltier #6 Jabo #7 Alley swirl #8 Marble King Cub scout #9 Alley swirl

I have told this many times over the years. I collected and played with marbles since the mid 1950's. Yes I went back to my childhood. Marbles were cheap and in every dime store near here. Most were Ravenswood's, and Vitro' with a few Akro's . Plus I am sure now many were Alleys along with a few Heaton and Cairo Novelty. Then with age I got away from marbles. Then my grandmother passed. On her desk was the first and only sulfide i had ever seen or paid attention to. When I was young and I would visit her often. I could get that marble and admire it but always had to be careful with it and always put it back exactly where I got it from on the desk. Well I ended up with that marble and still have it today. That was my only marble. Then several years later I happen to drive by Sistersville WV. It was the first ever marble show at Sistersville. I had to stop and see what all the crowd was about. There were people from TX, AZ, PA, OH and all over. Marbles for sale like I had never seen and prices that was total crazy. There I met Faye Safreed and she was selling Ravenswood marbles from her late fathers collection out of a large pickle jar. Her father was William Safreed the main man at Ravenswood Novelty. Of course I had to buy two Ravenswood marbles since I grew up near Ravenswood and remembered the factory. Then she sold out of marbles and when she found out I was from near Ravenswood. She then let me go through two scrap books she had brought. They were from her father and what she had added. I had purchased my first two marbles as a adult. I left Sistersville with lots of questions. The next weekend I was going top Clarksburg WV. On the way I stopped in a antique shop and bought my first ever contemporary. It was a clear sulfide with a blue insert of the state of WV. It was made by the late Jim Davis of Pennsboro WV. Who I later got to spend a little time with. That marble later became the West Virginia Marble Collectors Club logo marble. Next up the road was Mid Atlantic Glass. I was curious so I had to stop. Did they make marbles ? There was Sammy Hogue making contemporary marbles out of a 20 ton furnace of crystal glass. It was a Sunday and no one at the factory but Sammy. He convinced me to watch him make marbles. When he finished we talked and he said "you have been bitten by the marble bug". He also said that it can bite hard and last a long time. He never had any idea how hard or how long it would be with me, or maybe he did ? At least two times a month steady for the next two or three years. I would visit with Sammy and watch him make marbles. When he finished it was my turn., We sat on a wood bench outside the Mid Atlantic glass factory where he worked as a gather. I would get my Grrenbergs Guide to Marbles book out and start asking questions and making notes. Then asking who and where they were. He gave me the directions and contacts for so many WV marble people. But he never handed me anything easy. I had to work for every answer or direction. It took me asking for directions to the Jackson factory for three or four months. The book said not many known examples exist anywhere. That was it, I was going to find some Jackson marbles. Each week he would give me a new hint. All the time it was just down the road not far from his house. I did find it and I did get some marbles from the ground. I was so proud the next week when I visited Sammy. He finished making marbles and we went outside. I ask more questions but not about Jackson. Then he ask did you find the Jackson site. I said yes and he said was I sure ? I could not wait to get my hand in my pocket. I pulled out my had running over with Jackson marbles, some still with dirt. He looked down and with a big grin. He said you have found it. We then went across the street to his house. He then showed me his five gallon bucket of Jackson marbles. That was many years ago. I never missed a single Sistersville WV marble festival. Sammy Hogue is responsible for my addiction with marbles. Sammy Hogue was my beginning teacher and still is today. Sammy seemed to know anyone in WV connected to marbles. I manage to become good friends with many of those. Many or most of them are now gone. Past WV marble company owners, relatives and employees. So years later I try to pass along what so many people shared with me. They gave up so much of their time to answer my questions. Some I visited regular for many years. Over the years I have dug every marble site in WV except Master. Some of them many times over several years. I have dug CAC and even at the Alox site. The search has never stopped for information and marbles since that first marble show.

#1 St.Marys Alley #2 St.Marys Alley #3 ??? Not sure the base is right for Aide or Ace. Does it glow ? #4 CAC #5 St.Marys Alley #6 Jabo. The first experiments at Jabo with aventurine by Sammy Hogue in late 2007, early 2008. #7 Heaton #8 Alley

Alox or Champion or Ravenswood. A swirl not a slag.

Jabo.

Correct.

I am not 100% sure on these. But Ravenswood made some very close. But Dave M. while at Champion copied some Ravenswood's very close.

All look Alley except maybe #4 ???? Maybe just this one view ?

Common MK Bumblebees.

All Alley.

No pontil on any machine made marble.

Akro oxblood patches.

Akro Sparker should have five colors or more.

Jabo.