Tiny Handmade Clearie Almost Smallest, Least Rare, Most Worthless Known To Exist?

[lstmmrbls]

appear to be little bullet mold types

[Steph]

They're adorable!

What a great find.

[kbobam]

Like the title too!

[BuckEye]

I saw a set of these at auction last week call mosiak. The glass board said made in Czech. Does yours say that? Is this rare and I messed up again lol?

[jeeperman]

Cool find.

[lstmmrbls]

This is the only one I have seen. Box says Glass Ball Mosaic and it also says that on the top of the directions that have French on the bottom. The glass board only says Registered on 2 opposite sides

[zaboo]

hi, nice find. I have one, glass, 5 3/4" X 5 3/4" , teeny little glass marbles. not bullet mold. marked 'Standard Toycaft products co. Ny Ny'. Inside the little mosaic book that came with it, copyright 1937. all marked made in NY. It says "Your glass marble tray is four sided tray on one side, and 8 sided tray on the other. this gives you a chance to make 2 different kinds of designs, square and octagon".

It also says 'Mosiac designing is one of the oldest forms of art work and one of the most interesting, too." "you will find it really great fun".

EMK

[lstmmrbls]

Cool! These are older IMO. I will try and get a pic of the neat seam that runs around each little ball. They are far from round and smooth. looks like they were poured in a mold then refired in a kiln to help smooth them out.

[BuckEye]

The box I saw looked just like yours Galen, with six trays and the glass board

[akronmarbles]

I found a tiny non-seamed marble at MFC that was smaller than 1cm.

[winnie]

Thats a sweet box Galen,I can imagine that children love to play with it,before the video games.

I've a tiny little marble it's 3/8,of which i think it's a bullet mold,it looks a bit odd,i will post a pic- later.

[winnie]

Here it is,looks like a bullet mold,isn't it?

It's 3/8,the other marble is 5/8.

[kbobam]

I've been holding off, hoping someone else would ask.

But what's a 'bullet-mold'?

[lstmmrbls]

Some marbles(glass balls) were made in a mold like this bullet mold. Some were actually 3 piece molds. They are most common in codd bottles and furniture castors

http://www.nps.gov/history/museum/exhibits/revwar/image_gal/morrimg/bulletmold.html. I am not sure how the Czech type were made(Winnies marble) but we still call them bullet molds because they have a rough seam running the circumference of the marble that is usually ground off in the machine grinding process the go through.

[kbobam]

Thanks!

So it looks like putting two 'halves' together simplifies things.

The 'super-balls' I've shown here once or twice as jokes have

this same type of seam. Likewise sometimes removed with a

little more finesse than other times.

[lstmmrbls]

The Czech types do appear as 2 different halves of glass most of the time. The other types are usually clear or solid color and just look like glass poured in a mold.

[lstmmrbls]

got a pic where you can see the sprue(pore in spot)bump and the lines circling the ball.

[godown]

Although the principle is the same two opposing steel halfs the codds stopper marble mould was much different to the lead bullet mould it was circular and moulded 16 at a time

Below is a picture showing the moulds , and sprig belonging to John Ault and used for education

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u219/molly1photo/johns1.jpg

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u219/molly1photo/007.jpg

the lad to the left is holding what has come out of the mould i believe it is called a sprig the marbles were broken of and the ruff ends were if long manually filed off and then the marbles ground down in the machine below

http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/9718/fig30uv.jpg

Here is a small part of an article written by Mark Potten Credit to him for the pics and article

The plunger having been released, and the mould opened, the boy seizes the centre of the glass, now cooled to a semi-liquid, and runs off with it to the annealing oven, where he knocks the marbles off into a large iron box, to hold, say, 100 gross, sufficient for a day's work. They are there left to anneal thoroughly, and are then cooled gradually and taken to the grinding-room where they are carefully sorted, and those that have been broken off with pieces, too long for grinding are chipped first.
The best way to do this is with a file having a countersunk hole in it, into which the “get” or burr of the marble is placed, a small half-round file being used as a chopper. The marbles are then ready for grinding, which process is best accomplished by the use of Mr. Wickham’s grinding apparatus. This consists of a grindstone, working horizontally on a vertical shaft. The stone is placed and made fast to an iron table, and an iron bar is laid across the top, which keeps the surface smooth. Four boys can work at one grinding machine each being able to grind, with the use of the Wooden holders supplied by Mr.Wickham, about two gross an hour.
Water of course is used, and the waste is allowed to pass off through the curved pipe shown under the grindstone. When the burr is ground quite smooth and even with the rest of the marble the operation is completed. The counting is accomplished by an ingenious shovel with twelve grooves, each groove being made to hold a dozen marbles so that every time the shovel is used in counting one gross is scored They are then sent in boxes or casks to their destination. “

Hope this is of some interest and adds to the thread Presumably your marbles could have been made like this in large numbers

Craig C

[Steph]

Cool! This is brand new info for me.

[lstmmrbls]

Neat info. I figured they were made many at a time just never knew exactlywhat the mold looked like.

[godown]

Excellent glad to be able to help out

[lstmmrbls]

Now I really want to see the molds and methods for the large ones. Maybe a patent search for glass caster balls?

[I'llhavethat1]

Cool info. Does it mention anywhere if it was a resusable mold (probably was).

The larger caster balls is interesting, most of the ones I've seen can be identified as cane cut or not from a mold.

[lstmmrbls]

I should have clarified furniture feet (ball & claw feet). And I have never seen a vintage clear one that was not from a mold. And I have had dozens and probably seen over a hundred. Last one is a 3 piece mold

http://media.liveauctiongroup.net/i/8597/9908724_1.jpg?v=8CD3A5F15C45340

http://image0-rubylane.s3.amazonaws.com/shops/annasantiques/10045.1L.jpg?96

http://robinsonsantiques.com/feet/piano-stool/piano-stool-lg-2.jpg

[I'llhavethat1]

I posted this one a while back, pretty sure it wasn't from a mold. There is patent info stamped on the top, my guess is 1878 (but maybe the '78' means something else). Have you seen ones like this before in your travels? Sorry for branching off topic.