Help Id Please

[nancy cooper]

Steph suggested I start a new thread for this little marble. It was dug at an old bottle dump circa 1850 - 1930's or 40's. See how small next to quarter. The other marbles in this picture are a couple of the marbles found near this one. They are still dirty in this pic. Any ideas?

[popeyecollector]

How big is the dug marble pictured in the three panels on the left? It looks unusual. Is it glass?

The less than quarter sized pee wee on the right looks like a fancy pottery bennington.

[david Chamberlain]

This marble is one nemesis. Now there's two of them. Yikes! The one on the left has been troubling me for a few days now. It puts out contemporary vibes with that semi-swirling action evident in the first photo but I just can't imagine anyone, even a non-marble person, tossing this out. It is so cool. So I'm going with Fancy Bennington and a particularly charming variety. I like it! David

[Steph]

To me the surface looks sort of like enamel, like the decorations on some pennies my mother has from her youth.

Was that ever done to spherical objects?

[1DanS]

used with a hatpin(?)

thanks.

[Scoop]

This marble has been really disturbing me, because there is no way at all to explain it...

I'm not understanding the mention of a fancy Bennington... Or, the "marble on the left."

I'm assuming the single marble above is the same marble as the one in the group shot, closest to the quarter?... The middle marble looks machine made... The one on the left... I can't make out much at all... Am I missing other photos??

If the single one in question is glass (it seems to be)and it's been dug in a place that hasn't been goofed around with, there's few explanations that make sense...

The most logical that I can come up with, would be a "random torch made marble"... There have been glassworkers making torch made items for years...

Just as the best explanation for other handmade marble oddities has often been, "Possibly made by a glassworker as a gift for a child." This would be my guess... The fact that it's red and green says "Christmas?" to me....

Then, Dan suggested hat pins... Hmmmmmm!!! Does it have a teeny metallic spot on it??

So many "Old Attic" marble bags included objects that could be used as marbles, but never began that way.... If a hatpin was broken, or no longer used, cutting off the shaft and giving the "ball" to a child seemed like a common enough practice.

Here's a couple of hatpins that fit that bill... I believe they may be a bit larger... But, not much. I think they run about 5/8"...

The reason I mention a site "Not goofed with..."

There are a LOT of pranksters out there, who just love to toss something into a popular dug area, with the thought of, "This will really screw with their heads!!! LOL"

Never assume something in the ground has been there for a long time....

[david Chamberlain]

Here's what I understand is the straight skinny on the photos in Post #1. The first four photos are the same marble. The last three marbles are another marble. That's it. The first four photos are the marble we have been seeing all along and only here in Post #1 has this similar marble(Pics #5-7) been posited. David

[jeeperman]

Is that info from the poster David? Looks to me #1,2,3,4,6 and 7 are all the same marble and in pic 5 there is the same marble and two others. Am I missing something?

I do like the hatpin idea especially after the few that were posted.

[david Chamberlain]

Nah, the marble in pics. 1-4 is the same marble that Nancy has shown elsewhere in another thread and in multiple pictures. The marble in pic 5 in the same is the one in pic 6 and 7 and entirely different than the one in pics. 1-4 except for the fact that it is similar but not as pretty at least by my accounts. The marble in pics 1-4 has been around on the Board for a few days at least. Probably over in the ID section but I can't remember which titled Thread. Heck I've been posting on four different Boards lately and I'm lucky if I know where I am from one minute to the next. David

[david Chamberlain]

Yeah, the ID section about 14 Threads down and sub titled: "Helping my Daughter with Identification" or something like that. All the pictures you'd ever care to see of this one in pics #1-4. David

[jeeperman]

Wow that is amazing that two marbles that are so wild in pattern can have the same exact pattern. lol Look at the red blotches in pic 3 and pic six. They match perfectly. =}

As for the other two marbles in pic 5, it is a bit dark and fuzzy but if I had to guess....I would be reaching but would say, first could be a pelt rainbow and second vitro. However......=]

[nancy cooper]

Here's what I understand is the straight skinny on the photos in Post #1. The first four photos are the same marble. The last three marbles are another marble. That's it. The first four photos are the marble we have been seeing all along and only here in Post #1 has this similar marble(Pics #5-7) been posited. David

The picture are all of the same marble (now I'm thinking maybe 'hat-pin'). I only have one like this. I like the small picture (#1) of the marble better because it is clearer and prettier. I thought the more blown up versions might show more detail.

The hat pin pics looked like a possibility, you can see a hole in my marble on the left side of this picture (#1).

I recently read on one of the marble sites that they made African Trade marble beads in Germany.

Here's are pictures of a couple (#2 & #3) The holes in these are the same as mine and the size seems comparable. What's your thinking here?

I also think it looks kinda like these (#4 & #5), but they are bigger marbles (and probably completely different)

[jeeperman]

Thanks for confiming my sanity, I was pretty sure I was looking at one marble. As for those others you just posted. They are German handmades. I am not thinking yours is. I do think the hatpin idea is a possability. The trade beads you speak of....look for a necklace made of them. They can be pretty fantastic, however do not come cheap.

[nancy cooper]

I've been wanting to answer after I saw the hat pin pics but my computer's being moved and inaccessible and I'm lousy on my Blackberry. Now I'll go check out hat pins. The hole you can see on the left side of picture #1 goes all the way through the marble. I originally thought that someone had put it there but maybe it was made that way.

[nancy cooper]

Thanks for confiming my sanity, I was pretty sure I was looking at one marble. As for those others you just posted. They are German handmades. I am not thinking yours is. I do think the hatpin idea is a possability. The trade beads you speak of....look for a necklace made of them. They can be pretty fantastic, however do not come cheap.

Also the swirl part of the whatever it is has tiny bits of shiny metallic looking bits through it

[jeeperman]

Well, with the hole running all the way from one end to the other I suppose it could be a bead as well. The shiny metallic, is it in one color or the other and does it sparkle back and forth if you move the light. Use a very bright light and look close.

[nancy cooper]

Also the swirl part of the whatever it is has tiny bits of shiny metallic looking bits through it

The red dots looked raised in all of the pictures but are not, it's smooth except for the hole. The glass, bottle dump where it was found is abandoned no one goes there now, not sure if anyone did in the past. It looks pretty undisturbed. Some of the glass has been melted from a fire (even a few marbles). I don't know when or how many fires intentional or accidental there were there but something melted a lot of the glass. Tons of stuff is buried up in the roots of trees on the hillside of the ravine/gully where all this stuff is. So far of the things I've seen the earliest we can date is from the 1850's and the newest is from either the late 30's or early 40's. What kind of place do you think it would have been to have all the glass items. There are other things there but mostly tons of bottles and glass stuff.

[nancy cooper]

Well, with the hole running all the way from one end to the other I suppose it could be a bead as well. The shiny metallic, is it in one color or the other and does it sparkle back and forth if you move the light. Use a very bright light and look close.

I'll get to my daughter's and scrutinize the thing....haha

[david Chamberlain]

I use to decry the appearance of a hole in a fantastic bead for wanting it to be a marble but I think there are plenty enough marbles to get excited about to offset the disappointment. You know, this marble in question actually has a hatpin look to it and I've felt that all along since the very first posting with or without metallic remnants that seem to have come into play. David

[lstmmrbls]

Hat pin toppers will usually not have a hole completely through the bead. And when the pin is missing, a remnant of the pin usually remains in the bead making a rough metal filled mark.

[nancy cooper]

This marble/bead/hat-pin/homemade x-mas or whatever it is thing has really gotten to me. Any ideas on how to go about researching something like this? Here's what I know so far.

1. It was dug at a bottle and glass dump site circa 1850 - 1940. The site appears undisturbed at present and long ago abandoned.

2. It is small (I think 7/16" approx.) Although, I'm not sure how to measure it.

3. It is glass, opaque white base, swirls & spots of dark translucent green, a lighter green, Bright ruby red (looks almost gem like in intensity) probably somewhat translucent & a brownish color that may be the green & red mixing.

4. It does have a metallic looking sparkle in the greens and throughout the swirl in the brownish/gold color and greens.

5. It does not appear to be machine made. I can't see any seams or cut marks and the pattern appears to have been deliberately designed to suggest flowers.

6. There is a swirl that winds up and down around the entire marble. It looks like it stops in the same general area that it started.

7. It appears that somebody went to some effort to create this, so what is it? I wish I knew. The more I look at it the more I notice & the cooler it seems to get.

8. The hole goes through the marble but I can't tell if it was made that way or was an after thought.

9. I don't know enough to find the signs of how it was made but hope there are enough pictures here to show the whole marble so maybe you can tell me. I'd love that!

10. Thanks!!!

[Steph]

Could we have larger images of the views with the holes?

(edit: I agree with Galen and BJ.)

[lstmmrbls]

The first 2 pics shows this is a bead IMO. Pretty one. There may be bead boards that can ID it for you. So many billions of beads have been made it is usually tough to nail down other than a timeline.

[bigjohn691500]

The first 2 pics shows this is a bead IMO. Pretty one. There may be bead boards that can ID it for you.

agree, the bead is not a normal design for any marbles that i know, its pretty, but the hole through the glass is a good indicator that its a decrative bead, probably from a necklace,,,bj

[Scoop]

Yep... If it looks like a bead, acts like a bead and has a hole all the way through it,

Odds are.....

It's a Bead!!

Most beads / glass I've seen like this, is usually made in Bohemia, currently part of the Czech Republic.

Odds are, it was torch-made... Here's one of many sites with a history of Czech lampwork...

Big Bead, Little Bead