A Couple Of Nice Onionskins(One With Mica),starting 20 Nov Ebay

[I'llhavethat1]

Good points all around, maybe the pontils could shed some light? Or construction, presence of mica, colors indicate something with regards to era

[Mattshaw1953]

Hey where did you pull the image from the thread "messed up marbles" number 4 looks a good match for this one in a messed up kind of way!

[I'llhavethat1]

...The Greiners used some opaque glass colors that I'm sure they developed themselves. But I don't think their formulas for opaque colors were known outside their small circle.

This is the part that I'm a bit perplexed on but I wanted to let the auction run it's course before further comment.

To me it makes sense that if it was possible to make opaque glass during that period, other marble manufacturers/glass huts or whatever could have also been doing it. Or maybe the 'Greiner' company went out of business after producing the marbles we're associating them with, and these are closely guarded formulas taken to the grave. I don't know.

What piques my interest is seeing these questionable opaque colors found along side high quality handmades, (not saying 'Greiners' define that category) but the patterns/construction I would consider to be from the earlier part of the handmade era. To make it a bit more interesting they usually pop up in the UK, and in the size suitable for Solitaire boards.

Who knows, a lot can happen in a 20 year period so I can buy in to the fact that as popularity of solitaire went up between 1890-1910, they were pumped out a lot faster or sourced from a different supplier with their other top-secret opaque glass recipes who could meet the demand

Gonna have to ponder this a bit more... but reading between the lines, is it fair to say that we'd have a tough time finding a German handmade marble that has opaque colors other than white and yellow with a faceted pontil? And not a Greiner. lol

[ann]

. . . is it fair to say that we'd have a tough time finding a German handmade marble that has opaque colors other than white and yellow with a faceted pontil? And not a Greiner. lol

Off the top of my head, I'd say yes. I'll have to go through my oldies again, but I'm only remembering other colors like red, blue, green as transparent (usually over white). Homework tonight.