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1959 -- Dutch Marbles Roll Over The Globe


winnie

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It's true there was a marble company in Amsterdam.

Agood freind,Hans Bartels has looked in his fathers archief and found this newspaper article written by Jaap Stigter in 1959.

In my post "speaking of flames"i already mentioned the possible existence of a factory.

Then I also talked to a fellow who was born and raised in that neighborhood.

He told me he remembered the factory very wel,he picked up marbles as a child.

 


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Here is a brief translation of the contents of the article.

Dutch marbles roll over the globe.

Born in Amsterdam in glowing colored glass flow.

The marbles roll over into English,French,German,Ethiopian,Australian and Cuban children.

The large German manufacturing has disappeared since the war.

Netherlands has only one marble factory in the Realengracht.

France also has a marble factory.

The Dutch marble factory made each year 50 million marbles in different colors (15mm 17mm),those obtained by mixing metal oxides with glass mass.

10 years ago they started production.

In the beginning,they experimented a lot and the production process amounted to much handwork.

Finally they succeeded with the help of engineers to design their own marble machine.

How is that?

i think they have made swirls....

winnie

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WOW .. to say the least. excellant information. can more be had ? surely some made it over the pond to here ??? wow .. another can opened. are there comparative examples ??? way to go winnie ... any pictures available of the old sites ?? thanks for getting my morning ... thinking :music-rocker-001: ... bill

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Thanks all,

The company's name was "veiligglas"what means safe glass.

Who knows how many examples i do have in my collection.

If I look closely at the pic- i think they have made swirls.

Here in this post is more info about it.I first didn't believe it myself.

http://marbleconnection.com/topic/14750-speaking-of-flames/

winnie

 

Edited by Steph
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What funny in the article is:They immediately attracted the attention of an US importer,who asked of marbles with an animal in it,but it was not possible to make 2 different materials well together.

winnie

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I've translated some more of the article of which i think is interesting.

Although the director of the company wants to keep the working of the machine a secret.

We can tell that there are 2 molten glass streams,and rapidly rotating blades cut the streams into little pieces.

The pieces end up in cup-shaped forms,and then the marbles roll over a long iron machine.

Every day one fabricated an other(different) color.

When for example it's time for blue then every 5 minutes there is added a number shovels of glass with cobalt oxide.

In the beginning one supplied the marbles in large bags,but these days there is demand for small boxes with 6 or 12 marbles or little plastic bags.

winnie

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GREAT news Winnie. I always knew the information was there someplace. All of it could not have been lost or destroyed. Many of the so labeled German swirls and others,may get a true history attached with them. This is likely only the tip of the iceberg that has been hidden all these years. Also some in France,great news.

THANK YOU so much!

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  • 6 months later...

My father was managing director of this Dutch marble factory. The name of the factory was N.V. Veiligglas, the trade name out of its official name: N.V. Eerste Nederlandsche Fabriek van Veiligheidsglas "Veiligglas" and was situated in Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands. As a glass factory the company was active from about 1935 up to about 1970. It is now a trading name of a car glass importer and dealer as a subsidiary of Asahi Glass from Japan.

Manufacturing glass marbles was a side line next to the main business of the company, the hardening of glass to safety glass standards. The float glass was imported from factories in Belgium, Great Britain and Germany. The manufacturing of marbles took place from about 1949 up to about 1960/62.

I am now engaged in writing an article about the company and its marbles manufacturing. I am grateful if anyone can help me with more concrete information about the marbles and/or the factory.

Especially I am interested in receiving the article in the Dutch paper of which I know that it is published, but I do not have the article itself.

Please send your information at [ziekenoppasser (at) yahoo.com].

Thank you very much!

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The site of the factory is no longer accessible: all the factories around there have been removed for city renovation and a beautiful new modern apartment building is now on the site of the glass and marble factory (see post #27 in "Speaking of flames" of this website with a fine picture of it). This building has won the Amsterdam municipal Merkelbach Prize for outstanding architecture in 1991. One of the architects has written to me: "During the preparation process we have found several marbles in the ground and they all went into the marble collection of my daughter".

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Oh this is so much fun,in a sort of bad time for me.

I,ve mailed with Hans Ziekenoppasser and he has send me 18 pictures of the marbles,made by veiligglas in Amsterdam,thanks so much.

And yes these are the marbles i've found frequently here,and i was always thinking they were made in Germany,isn't that funny?

Here are a few of the pic-.

winnie


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Thanks David,I hope it will be all right,i'm positive.

You want me to take a dive in the river (who knows LOL).

I live near that place,from my window i can see the river.

I'll post later some more pictures from the marbles,that was send to me by Hans Ziekenoppasser.

winnie

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Not a hour after I viewed this thread I saw this on ebay.

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this one of course, is posted in this thread

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heres the link ending very soon.

http://www.ebay.com/...984.m1423.l2649

looks quite similar. the way those flames (fan) out

david

edit: to Winnie below.

the one I saw on ebay - looks like if you flipped it, might be kinda wirepulley

the listing said (torch marble), dont know bout that.

I'm gonna post a SO in I.D. take a look, see if you have a region or manufacturer.

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 Here are the Veiligglas marbles made in Amsterdam.

They're all swirls and a sort of wirepull type,

exept for the yellow one on top,not sure what it is.

There were also some clearies.

I wish that yellow red flame swirl is mine.

winnie



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