wvrons

I agree the marble on the right has been reheated and bad. A torch or a good fire.

I see Akro but I would not call it a Hero. Master would be my second choice. Those cut lines and the brushed thin colors look Master. But those eye lashes sure look Akro.

Maybe a older torch made marble.

I agree four Alley flames. Vitro cat eyes except the center looks like Heaton. The last group all foreign. I agree Vacor. The cut lines on the brown one are wrong for vintage Alley, or Ravenswood or any other WV swirl.

Master. Master made good numbers of 7/8 inch range marbles.

Why are the opaque green ones to large for game marbles ? There is a Ming Check Chinese checker board that requires 7/8 inch marbles. The board came with a boxed set of 7/8 opaque Vitro game marbles.

Champion had to build a new furnace is why the stopped the practice. It did not remove or wash out as much as they planned. None of the furnance marbles were marketed by Champion. Most were discarded and they allowed the employees to take them home. One Champion employee brought 1 1/2 gallons to Sam Hogue and told him put these away. Someday they might be worth something. He was correct. A lot of that 1 1/2 gallon was sold by marblealan.

These are called Champion Furnace marbles or Champion Furnace Scraping marbles. Glass can have a different coefficenecy, you cannot just mix and remelt any and all glass together. If the coeffiencey is to far apart the glass will fracture badly. Champion got the idea that instead of a costly complete rebuild of a furnace, once it had to much glass build up. That they could use Wissimach glass a much different coefficency than the glass Champion used. This would make the glass buildup in the Champion furnace to fracture and fall apart and out. They never ever planned to market or sell the marbles from this. They did the trail, the Wissimach glass did fracture the marbles. But it never fractured the furnace buildup enough to remove it. The theory and trail was a failure. They discarded most of the marbles and allowed employees to take them free. They had to end up building a new furnace, which is time and costly. Many or most of the Champion Furnace marbles have fractures but some do not. Most were very bright colors and some great swirl and flame patterns. They are unique to Champion alone and most are easy to identify.

Chad your marble the very first in this post is a Champion Red Cloud or some call it Hot Tamalie. It was made at the same time as the Hot wheels. Different time frame that the Furnace marbles.

I miss Winnie helping us out.

I like the Champion Furnace marbles. I have a couple wood cases of them, pee wee to display11/16.

Many people have produced great oxblood old and new. Brian Graham has made oxblood that very few if any can separate from MFC ox. Different shades of oxblood were produced at Jabo for a few years. Some Sammys Mountain marbles has oxblood. Because I made it happen for Bobby Newman in a couple runs. Vitrolite sheet oxblood.

The Fence connectors-strain insulators. The small one is Alley. I talked to the man who made most of these. They were made on a machine which they called the corn cob machine. They were made only at the Pennsboro location about 1934-1937. Alley sold them as and for radio antenna wire insulators. Hook one end or hole to the house, run the antenna wire through the other hole . Run the radio antenna wire out to a tree or object. Hook the end of the antenna wire to another insulator hole on one end and the other hole is used to attach insulator to tree or object. Alley made them in clear and transparent colors with two shades of blue, green, root beer, and yellow. The root beer and yellow are very rare. I don't know who made the others or when ? You can see a big difference in your two. I see more of the others than actual Alley ones. Bill McCaleb found one spot at Pennsboro where he dug out probably 10-15 gallon of them. There were scattered over the site, but Bill found the radio antenna insulator honey hole.

Jabo

I have always thought that I started to late. That was over 25 years ago. There is plenty of new discoveries and new information out there to be found. After 25 years I just this week made contact with Henry Art Fisher's great grandaughter. There are lots of searching for marbles, information, or people yet to be done. No matter when you start it will never be early enough. It can last a lifetime no matter when you start. How long it last is up to each person.

I agree totally with Alan.

I agree.

They can vary wide in price. Condition, size and the figure inside all change the values. Put them in water an look at the size of the figure. The inserts or figures are small. The clear glass magnifies them. The inserts need to be small in order to place them inside a red hot piece of glass, as near center as possible, and without trapped air. Some Sulfides has been made to look like the original antique ones.

Sponsored is probably connected to newer marbles made at Jabo since 2008 and DAS or Sammys Mountain Marbles. Many of those marbles were made by money from people usually called investors. A group of people would pool money together to fund making 2000 or 1000lbs of marbles. With no guarantee of what they may end up with. At the end they owned and split the marbles up between them, depending on how much each one invested. A few people did invest enough for a complete run all by their self. Which could have been from $12000.00 to $20,000.00. What all colors and additives that were used affected the cost. Sponsored or investor may mean one person or six or over a dozen. I was a investor in around 75 to 100 special investor runs. If you were there and part of it, then you were called a investor. Sponsored is just another or different fancy name to get attention for sales.

For me there is only one marble with ghost in the name. It was named about twelve years ago by a collector. He liked them and thought they needed a name. It is a 5/8 size Alley marble, blue base, a few different blue shades, and good amount of clear and or translucent stringy white and red to slightly orange swirl. Most of them were produced by Alley while he was at the St.Marys WV location, his last. The clear and or translucent weak milky white, looked to him some like a ghost or ghostly. People want their marble to have a name and think that will increase the value greatly. So a quick search on ebay puts all kinds of names and incorrect ideas in marble listings on ebay. Ebay is not a place to learn marble names. Do not believe many ebay marble listings. Know reliable ebay marble sellers. Routine, steady, long time, good feeback ratings, or known collectors are likely reliable ebay marble sellers. The Alley St.Marys Ghost is a common and easy to find Alley swirl. I don't have a picture of one, as they are common and lots of them. But it is a good sounding name and people like using it. So people have them for sale all the time now. Plus many other marbles that are not even close to the Alley St.Marys Ghost. I have gave probably a few hundred of them away. But I have also had more Alleys than many people. I still consider them to be a 25 cents to $2.00 marble, because there are so many of them. But because of the name people are grabbing them up. But it will take a few years, maybe a lot of years, to shorten the supply. I have never been to any marble show in 20 years that there was not a few to hundreds of them for sale. Before the name and after.

Jabos, but the first I have heard of V run ?

Maybe a cork that did not spin correct ?

I agree.

Al posted a picture above of 7/8 inch marbles produced by Marble King and named Berry Pink. Berry Pink was the original Marble King. That is what he wanted to be called or known as. Berry Pink never made or produced marbles but was the best ever promoter of play marbles. He was in a partnership with Alley at the Sistersville WV location. He was part owner at the start of the Marble King Company. He was a marble jobber, salesman and promoter. He promoted more than anyone else ever the marble games, marble shooting and marble tournaments all over the country. He was good friends with Roger Howdyshell who managed and later owned Marble King Company. His was the god father of Berri (Howdyshell) Fox, current owner of the Marble King Company.

The stone agates newer and older dropped in value a few years ago but are coming back the last 3-4 years.