Rosenthal Dates -- A 1932 Article

[Steph]

Thought this was cool, even with the left side chopped off. The title might be, "Some Ideas in Marble Merchandising". (It looks like it should have some small word in front of the "Ideas".) There are definitely some other parts I wish I could see better, but for now ---

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For comparison (and some color) here's a Rosenthal box BJ sold. The story with it was that it was given to a boy at his 5th grade graduation in 1931. (4-vane cat a later addition of course) Sometimes the stories with the boxes are right! :-) That looks like a leatherette bag, no?, and the dimensions look like they could match. The marble count doesn't quite match but that wouldn't be the biggest typo I've seen in an old article this week.

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And here's the double-compartment mesh bag from Alan's auction.

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[Al Oregon]

Here's a box picture comparison to the Rosenthal Box - different company (or maybe they did for Rosenthal, too).

[Steph]

Cool. 20 marbles. I wonder if that's closer to the dimensions given in the article.

BJ, you wouldn't happen to remember the dimensions on yours? :-)

Approximating the ratio of length to width I got a factor of 2.42 using the article's dimensions. Using pixel count, I got 2.52 on the Rosenthal box and 2.22 on the Rich box.

By odd coincidence I got 2.52 on 2 different Rosenthal boxes. It's odd because you wouldn't expect two approximations to come out that close. Here's the other example I used.

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(I do get about 2.4 on this view but the 2.52 came from a view with less distortion. lol.) ((Please someone save the day and tell us what the dimensions are for this style of Rosenthal box! ))

[akronmarbles]

Bob Block sold a box back in 1998 that was an award for perfect attendance in November of 1930 - there was a certificate stating so.

[Steph]

Wow, Brian, do you remember if that box contained moss agate type patches?

I've edited the image of the article to give my best guess for how it was intended to read. I'm not at all sure about the "assortments of 100 marbles ... containing rich shades of red and yellow" part toward the bottom. And if I'm right about Mr. Morris Rosenthal there, then I had guessed the wrong Morris Rosenthal. (Lots of Morris Rosenthals to choose from.)

I know I have given Berry Pink a bit of a hard time for his exaggerations, and I'll likely sound that way again as I keep sorting through his story -- he's so interesting! But whatever I say, I find it easy to believe he was proud of the job he did in promoting marbles and that he did it well. Promoting himself was clearly a part of how he did the job.

This article from Playthings gives a sense of what middle men such as jobbers and salesmen could do to help maximize the potential of their clients on both ends of the transactions. They had good ideas for retailers. With packaging innovations and good advertising they could help lead the market and open a lot of doors for the manufacturers. On the other end they could give their suppliers good ideas based on feedback from many retailers, and of course from many consumers. Pink became known for his hands-on research -- giving marbles away for free involved letting kids choose the marbles they liked. The story is told that this is how he knew that red was always a winner. Maybe that's why Pelt had two "big value" style boxes. One for the assorted colors and one just for Bloodies. Does anyone reading this know? Would Pink deserve credit for the Bloodies boxes? Those 100 count boxes couldn't be that, could they? 1932 was way too early, right?

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[akronmarbles]

They were referred to as "twenty five patch oxbloods" - I thought I had a photo, but can't seem to find it.

A quick email with a reference librarian at the New York public library would definitely fill in any missing or questionable words - I bet they would do it over the phone for you. Having the month, year, and page number really helps in this case.

[Steph]

Thanks. I wouldn't have thought to try that.