Marble Id Please

[red-eyes]

Can anyone please suggest to me a comprehensive marble book? I'm trying to identify so many different marbles at once, that the task is overwhelming!

Thanks for any info that you can provide!

[Steph]

Bob Block's Marbles: Identification & Price Guide has some errors but it's pretty handy in general.

That said, I can't think of any one book which covers everything I wanted to know as a newbie.

Posting mibs on the boards is really a great way to go if you have a halfway decent camera. If not, of course that is its own brand of frustration.

[ann]

For hand-mades I think the best is Paul Baumann's "Collecting Antique Marbles." And I agree with modularforms about Block's book -- some of the examples are not the greatest, but it was really useful to me too in the beginning, and I still turn to it now and then -- for machine-mades, anyway. There's a book called "Popular American Marbles" (Johnson, Six, etc.) but don't spend your money on that one. The photos are lousy and there's a heavy reliance on their earlier (and much better) book that deals mostly with manufacturers and packaging. Unfortunately, there's not really ONE book that does for machine-mades what Baumann's does for the handmades -- yet!

[psia-antique]

Even better than books is going to shows and having marble buddies. You can only learn so much from pictures and then your learning curve stops. Ultimately marble collecting and IDing is tactile and visual.

[Alan]

Identifying marbles accurately from books without supporting experience usually results in substantial mis-identification. The reason for this is that novices see a dizzying array of marbles in the book that look alike, look similar, aren't pictured etc etc etc and ultimately make a "best guess" based upon colors. A marble photo in a book show less than 25% of the marble's features. And there are far too many marble types for even a couple of books to represent. So while a book may seem to be a fairly quick and easy ID method - they really aren't.

There are nuances of pattern, cut lines, transparency, color and many other aspects that take experience to use to reach an accurate conclusion. Even among seasoned collectors - identification of some types poses challenges due to similarities between manufacturer's machines and glass formulas.

Nothing is a substitute for identifying a marble with it in hand. That is why learning at shows in the presence of experienced collectors cannot be equalled by books or photos on the internet.

I encourage to find a show near where you live and to plan to attend. There is a wealth of experience and the opportunity to accurately ID what you have.

[ann]

What Alan said.

[red-eyes]

Thanks much for your replies- I appreciate the help! I've been collecting about 2 years, I went to my first couple shows this year, & I do have one of Block's books.

I don't know anyone that lives anywhere near me, and I simply can't bring this quantity of "mystery marbles" to a show, so it sounds like I'll have to start posting photos.

Thanks to All!

R-E

[Al Oregon]

What general area do you live in - many of us have contacts all over the US - maybe we can put someone in touch with you? Also, when it comes to marble ID in books, the vast majority shown are ones that have a little bit of value to them (or a lot) but 95% of the marbles that you find in the wild are 'common' and you don't find them in the books.