JerryG Posted February 12, 2016 Report Share Posted February 12, 2016 A couple days ago I posted photos over on LOM of three mesh bags that I've had for over 10 years. First two were deemed real and the last, an Alox Agate bag, was deemed sort of fantasy. Probably real bag and header but filled with other marbles. It appeared to have a combination of swirls and cats-eyes that looked like MK. Our lovely moderator, Steph, stepped in with some reasonable points that this bag may not be a 'sort of fantasy'. Her reasoning was that Alox themselves filled bags with their own and other manufacturer's marbles. You'll notice a small hole in the seam at the bottom and I carefully tweaked out a few of the marbles. The cats do look MK, but I'm at a loss with the swirls. Any opinions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ric Posted February 12, 2016 Report Share Posted February 12, 2016 Alox marbles are tough, since they bought a lot of marbles from others even early on. I seem to recall that when the factory building and contents were auctioned off there were a lot of old bags and headers sold but not many (if any) marbles. So some of these bags were likely back-filled by others. There are also reproduction headers around. And if I remember right, there is some small difference in the Alox Mfg - St. Louis line that you can use to tell them apart - sorry I don't remember the details. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerryG Posted February 12, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 12, 2016 Looking at Steph's Study Hall Alox Agates, I notice a photo of an Alox Tit Tat Toe box. Now I think I've got one of those somewhere. A quick search through my box of marble packages turns it up and it contains marbles. They look surprisingly like those I tweaked out of the mesh bag. So were both backfilled with the same marbles (by Alox or somebody else down the line) or are they actually Alox swirls? Good question and something I'm not going to be able to answer. Just interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steph Posted February 13, 2016 Report Share Posted February 13, 2016 Can't say Alox didn't get the swirls from someone else. (The did get marbles from other companies before they got their own marble machines.) But Alox did make swirls (and did make patches) and I don't see any reason not to assume the swirls in that box and your bag are Alox. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wvrons Posted February 13, 2016 Report Share Posted February 13, 2016 When Alox closed they had rolls of unused original bag headers and rolls of unused mesh bags thousands of each plus Alox marbles. I have some of each. Many of these has been backfilled by people other than the Alox company. So you will find original bags filled by Alox and many that were not or do not contain Alox marbles. Your swirl marbles look like Alox. Alox did buy marbles from other companies before starting their own production and afterwards.They bought marbles from Master Ravenswood and i am convinced from Alley and probably others. So the marbles in the bag are the best indication if maybe originall filled by Alox or at least with Alox marbles. A rare original Alox mesh bag with Paul Bunyan marbles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wvrons Posted February 13, 2016 Report Share Posted February 13, 2016 Box of 500 Alox swirls. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wvrons Posted February 13, 2016 Report Share Posted February 13, 2016 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steph Posted February 13, 2016 Report Share Posted February 13, 2016 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wvrons Posted February 13, 2016 Report Share Posted February 13, 2016 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wvrons Posted February 13, 2016 Report Share Posted February 13, 2016 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wvrons Posted February 13, 2016 Report Share Posted February 13, 2016 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wvrons Posted February 13, 2016 Report Share Posted February 13, 2016 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wvrons Posted February 13, 2016 Report Share Posted February 13, 2016 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wvrons Posted February 13, 2016 Report Share Posted February 13, 2016 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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wvrons Posted February 13, 2016 Report Share Posted February 13, 2016 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Oregon Posted February 13, 2016 Report Share Posted February 13, 2016 Here are some pics of ones that I have that I don't think are included in ones that Ron posted. Apologies if any duplicates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Oregon Posted February 13, 2016 Report Share Posted February 13, 2016 And some more Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wvrons Posted February 13, 2016 Report Share Posted February 13, 2016 Alox produced and sold many more items than marbles. One of or the main item was shoe string laces. I was able to visit and view one of their original shoe lace machines. That was a lot of specialzed small metal parts moving in all directions. Bill McCaleb and myself had the pleasure to spend some time with John Frier the last owner of Alox now deceased. Plus his daughter and our good friend Nancy Frier. Time well spent. Nancy shared so much Alox history with us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wvrons Posted February 13, 2016 Report Share Posted February 13, 2016 According to Nancy Frier the mesh bag above which Al posted with the brown and black header is the earliest Alox bag. The marbles in that bag are Alox and match what is in the 500 count box that I posted above. They also match the marbles which Nancy had straight from the factory when she was a early teen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steph Posted February 13, 2016 Report Share Posted February 13, 2016 Some great dates and pictures and information there, Ron. Thank you. And thanks to Nancy, of course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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