New Moon

[kbobam]

My huge Moonie collection (3 mibs! Small, medium, and large!) was crying out for updating,

and I couldn't resist the 'dramatic simplicity' of this one.

The shape of the pattern is reminding me of a 'one that got away' marble from long ago.

I want to say that it was a Marble King Spiderman, and it had a similar small pattern of

much better looking than this oxblood. I was guessing that it was an older model than the

Spidermen I was familiar with, which are nice, but more 'cluttered' and not as 'precise'.

If anyone is familiar with the historical progression of these marbles I'd like to hear about it.

Thanks! Bob ( :

[Steph]

It's Bob!

*flying tackle hug*

[kbobam]

Ooof!

[psia-antique]

Kokomo.

[Steph]

That's an interesting post, Steve. I wouldn't have thought of Kokomo.

Bob, it looks like you have a two-prong (at least) question there.

A. Who made your marble.

B. The history of the moonies.

Part B gets confusing because I think what was called "moonie" has changed over the years, and different companies have made marbles which were made with similar glass. How deep do you want to go with this?

[psia-antique]

...oops! ...did not see the word oxblood...so not a Koko.

[Steph]

So do folks think this is in the Akro family?

Bob, does the base glass have an orange glow when held to the light? The base looks sorta like some later Akros which didn't have the glow and did sometimes have oxblood.

[lstmmrbls]

looks Akro to me

[m!b$]

It looks like a Begonia. Or maybe an Impatiens.

[Ric]

I always enjoy seeing your creativity, Bob. Another interesting shot. I'll board the Akro bus too.

[kbobam]

Thanks everyone!

The marble was described as an Akro.

Glad I looked back at the listing, because I was going

to tell you it was 5/8 of an inch and apparently it's a whopping 43/64ths. ( :

The base has an overall orange glow under fairly strong direct light.

But there are subtle milky swirl patterns internally, and even with a more

moderate light source if you hold the marble at just the right angles you

can see a couple spots which give an appearance of almost transparent orange.

A 'Super Saturday' to all, Bob

[kbobam]

And yes. It definitely has an impatiens 'aura' to it,

although you're apparently seriously spiritually developed if you can

sense that from the photo. I can only see it with the marble in hand.

[Steph]

For the historical end of the discussion, I just ran across this box in the Morphy auction Jeroen posted, so I thought I'd include it here. Estimate 1930's on these. I think early 1930's but don't want to pin it down. I was getting a later impression - maybe 1940's - from your mib, but am unsure since you got an orange glow.

[kbobam]

Neat box!

Some of the marbles seem to tend toward pink and some toward green.

Mine are all greenish when in a low light total non-glow state, although

I've seen pink moonies for sale. Any story behind the distinction? Thanks. ( :

[Steph]

Not sure about pink moonies ??

Akro and CAC are the ones that I know of who sold marbles officially called moons/moonies.

But kids were calling marbles moonies before Akro or CAC were ever started. And in 1942 the word "moonie" appears to have been applied in a more general sense to marbles with a translucent base -- some Pelt Rainbos were identified as moonies in a Life magazine article.

Check out pp. 56, 57 here. On p. 56 there's a box describing the marbles shown on p. 57. If you can zoom in you'll see the descriptions. http://books.google....id=KFAEAAAAMBAJ

[Steph]

Here's what someone, possibly Berry Pink, had to say about the moonie in 1955:

thread with the SI article that came from

There are some confusing marbles in the row next to the moonie description. I'm just pointing out the basic idea that "moonie" had different meanings. I like how whoever wrote that included bloodies in the moonie category.

[Steph]

I looked up pink moonie on ebay and saw this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Marbles-Akro-Agate-Pink-Moonie-013111-12-S1-/190716778204

I am reasonably sure (pretty close to certain) that it is a modern Marble King. Do you want one? I think I still have some.

Edit to add: Look at the Marble King site: http://www.marblekingusa.com/Color_Catalog.php . The "opal pink" ones are called solids, but obviously they are translucent. And they have fire.

[mmuehlba]

well I like moonies a lot have a few , well it is all the base glass there are a lot of them but just the regular well just show them in the sun light and enjoy even more , I just got this new one for sure its a blue moon over an inch just had to share . one of my first finds was a wood box just loaded with them made a special box out of it .Mike

[kbobam]

Thanks for all the good info and other stuff, Steph!

Even enjoyed the additional non-marble content pages in the old magazine.

Mike, the box-load is definitely impressive looking. I'm almost certain that the

'blue moon' is the same marble which I refer to as my 'large' one. I described

it to Steph recently, and neglected to mention the blue aspect. What I did say

was that it's the most 'alive' marble I've ever seen. Seriously, you could strike

a match in a pitch black room and that marble would light up ten feet away

from you. Light it up more and it's like a miniature version of one of those

disco balls with the little mirrored tiles. I always guessed that it was a Vacor,

although I've never seen it in their listings and the surface finish lacks the

imperfections that many of their runs seem to have. ( :

[Steph]

For no particular reason -- a moonstone ring someone posted on facebook. I like!

Source: facebook page of CRYSTALS MINERALS GEMSTONES FOSSILS ROCKS

To try to make it mildly relevant: I still wonder what it was that kids would have called "moonies" circa 1900. Would it have been a marble made of moonstone? Might it have been onyx? What else could have been a candidate? Which translucent stones did people make marbles out of? Or should I be thinking of something made of glass. Like mellonballs.