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Giant Onionskin, One Of The Largest Known To Exist?


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Hello,

I like very big old handmade marbles. Recently I added a verry large onionskin to my collection. It has a nice color combination, and some mica too. The size of this one is what making this onionskin very rare. It is 2-19/32 inch! The weight of this monster is 370 grams, or 13,1 oz. It is great to have such a marble in my collection, but it is making the other marbles small ;-)

My question is, does any one of you know if there are bigger onionskins known to excst? And if so of what size? (a photo would be nice)

I know there are larger swirls, but I have never seen or heard of an onionskin that is larger than this one.

I know some of you visit a lot of marble shows. Perhaps seen a bigger one there?

Thanks for the help.

Jeroen

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I forgot to say that it had the same colors as the one in this post.

Some told me he had seen a single pontil onionskin with exact the same colors, and some mica too, that was 2-3/4 inch. Could be a marble from the same cane, as the end of that cane. A few years ago 3 same cane clown onionskins (if I remember correctly) were for sale at Morphy. Allthough, they were from the same cane, they were different in size. So a 2-3/4 inch marble could be from the same cane as a 2-19/32 inch marble.

Jeroen

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Some told me he had seen a single pontil onionskin with exact the same colors, and some mica too, that was 2-3/4 inch. Could be a marble from the same cane, as the end of that cane. A few years ago 3 same cane clown onionskins (if I remember correctly) were for sale at Morphy. Allthough, they were from the same cane, they were different in size. So a 2-3/4 inch marble could be from the same cane as a 2-19/32 inch marble.

Jeroen

Could it? Sure. Given how cane marbles are made - it up to the maker how far to draw out the cane - or not..... and how large to make the starting diameter. Of course larger pieces mean that you have far fewer pieces. Keep in mind that a shop would be turning out a LOT of canes - and its hard to say that they were unique. You could easily have a shop turn out20 of the same cane design in the same day. It actually makes sense that they would - because canes require that you pull stringers and components in advance. Its a waste of time to make stringers for just one or two canes. So favorite design must have been common.

Large same-canes do pop up from time. Yars ago at the Maine show there were FIVE 2+ inch same canes for sale as a set.

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Les Jones had the biggest collection of these monsters, he brought them to a Kokomo show one time, it was fun just seeing them but a bonus was Les let me hold them, sounds weird but when you have something this rare let alone a big collection of them you have to indulge yourself a little,, j

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Les Jones had the biggest collection of these monsters, he brought them to a Kokomo show one time, it was fun just seeing them but a bonus was Les let me hold them, sounds weird but when you have something this rare let alone a big collection of them you have to indulge yourself a little,, j

Hello, Do you know were those big marbles went? Has an other collector bought them, or were they sold at an auction? Must be several years ago, because in the archives of Morphy, or Live auctioneers, I can't find any real big onionskin.

Jeroen

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I'm sure Les's collection, at least the valuable pieces, have remained with his family.

Hello, Do you think Is it possible to get contact with Les's family? Any idea who might help me with that? Not that I want to buy such giant marbles (probably way over my budget) but just to see some photos of it would be great. I found a photo on internet of the 2003 Kokomo marble show, with Les behind a table. Perhaps the show bigjohn691500 was refering too?

Jeroen

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number 9 has some of your bigguns

http://www.joemarble...207,%202009.htm

Hello, I contacted "number 9" He told me he bought some marbles from Les Jones, but the best were allready gone. Les Jones wife (or an other relative) sold them in the years after Les died at marble shows. Number 9 doubted though if Les really had onionskins up to 3 inches diameter. The only marble of this size he ever heard of was the giant 3-1/8 inch swirl that was sold last year at the august Morphy auction. I must say that after all my searching, and asking a lot of "big collectors" I have heard only of a few onionskins that were just over 2-1/2 inch.

So the search continues for the big 3 inch onionskin. Does anyone has other suggestions?

Jeroen

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If you want to know how large a jumbo onion skin gets, ask Hansel or Hipocritter. They are the true experts on matters such as this. Ronnie

Hello,

I asked Hansel before, but as far as I remembered he has no information of the existence of 3 inch jumbo onionskins. I don't know who Hipocritter is, but he is welcome to tell me what he knows.

Jeroen

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I never saw Les with any onionskin that large. Ask Bill Tite

Hello, I got an reaction from Bill, and het saw all of Les marbles, but non of them was above 2-1/2 inch. It seems those extra large over 2-1/2 inch ones are rarer than we might think.

Jeroen

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well i guess im a liar, if i could only get into my old crashed computer i actually had pics of the group,, he told a story how he fought with airlines because they wanted him to check them in as baggage and he refused because of the monetary value of them,,, pretty sure them were the bigguns like yours but, i cant prove it because of that dang crash i had,, so call me a liar i guess,, j

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well i guess im a liar, if i could only get into my old crashed computer i actually had pics of the group,, he told a story how he fought with airlines because they wanted him to check them in as baggage and he refused because of the monetary value of them,,, pretty sure them were the bigguns like yours but, i cant prove it because of that dang crash i had,, so call me a liar i guess,, j

Hello, I am not calling any one a liar. I thought it would just be intersting to know, if more of such jumbo onionskins do exist. And who can tell for sure the other people are right about Les Jones marbles. It is not easy to tell just buy looking at a mable how big it actually is. A large marble with a shrunken core might look smaller than one of the exact same size with the appearance of the colored glass just under the surface. In one book I remember that such a kind of onionskin is called a bowling ball, because the look very large, because the colored glass seems to be just under the surface.

I hope we are not finished yet with this subject. More information about jumbo onionskins is welcome!

Jeroen

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