Davis, Cairo, Jackson !!

[Chad G.]

I have a bunch of un I.D. mibs of which I believe to be a are a mix of Cairo, Davis and Jackson with maybe a few Alox in the mix, just wanted to know if anyone collects any of them and how to really distinguish one from the other, not common all had a short run except Alox 1919 - 1989. Davis 47 - 48, Cairo 46 - 50, Jackson 45 - 46 all extremely short runs. They're never talked about so maybe a good subject, I'll take some pix later after some discussion and see about the I.D. 's Not highly desired but an important facet in marble history, somewhere along the line they fell into obscurity. My Jackson & especially Davis pic folders are very limited, provenance ( where, who, when, why ) also, reasons being why they were so short lived and or absorbed by another manufacturer ?? I have pic folders from each and every manufacturer in case I get lazy and need to present known examples, from Joes mibs & other reliable I.D. sites etc....

[Chad G.]

Maybe a few pics of each to get started, Thanks & appreciation given to joes marbles & mibbage for the pix

DAVIS: 1947 - 1948

DAVIS :

DAVIS :

CAIRO : 1946 - 1950

CAIRO :

CAIRO :

JACKSON : 1945 - 1946

JACKSON :

JACKSON :

 

[wvrons]

Jackson

 

A BIG Key to Jacksons is learning which ones glow. Once you learn those, the ones that glow are easily spotted in any group of WV swirls. The ones which do not glow are a problem separating from other WV swirl companies. All the Jacksons which glow were made with a very limited Vitrolite cullet. It is a dirty white or cream colored white Vitrolite that glows bright. I think that Jackson and Davis probably shared a dump truck load of this limited Vitrolite cullet. Every marble company in WV used Vitrolite cullet, but only Jackson and Davis had or used this certain dirty white glowing Vitrolite cullet. 

Just a touch of history.

 A friend of mine, Jack Ash got his first job out of high school about 1964. with George Murphy. That job was dumping Jackson mesh bags of marbles. George Murphy was the owner of the previous Jackson marble site. He owned a Ford car dealership there. George wanted to use the current garage bay for a auto paint booth. Because they wanted to add another garage bay onto the building.  Jack was told to get rid of the the carboard boxes full with mesh bags of Jackson marbles. Jack took those full boxes with the mesh bags of marbles outside where they would later add more onto the building. He cut the boxes open and poured out the bags on the ground. Each cardboard box contained about four dozen mesh bags of marbles. He said that he could have filled my pickup truck bed with the full boxes. Within a couple weeks all the mesh bags of marbles had new concrete poured over top of them.  His next clean out was to remove five 55 gallon metal drums of Jackson marbles from the same garage bay. He put the drums one at a time on a cart and took them across the road and dumped them in a ditch alongside of US Rt.50.  That ditch was later filled in and rerouted.  The marbles from about four of those drums has been excavated and in the hands of collectors all over. Jacks next clean out job was to take all the remaining loose and misc. Jackson marbles out and dump them behind the building.  About 98% of all those marbles have been excavated and in collectors hands all over. 

 Every site has many different reasons marbles were discarded or dumped into the ground.  When they were dumped they had no value, just taking up space. The similar thing happened at Ravenswood.  Drums and boxes of ready to ship marbles sat in the factory until about 1983-86. These marbles were ones that could not even be sold or get a bid during two earlier years auctions. So the new owners wanted to rent the building out for storage. So they hired two neighbors with a pickup truck to remove the marbles and haul them down to the riverbank. They dumped all the full drums and boxes of marbles over the river bank. About 99% of those marbles has been excavated and in collectors hands. Yes, each and every marble company site had mint ready to sell marbles dumped onto the ground.  In the 1960's-1970's-early 1980's most machine marbles were a problem, not any asset. Collectors today have trouble realizing that the marbles were cheap toys. They were cheap to make, hundreds for a penny and sold cheap. Made at 200-250 per minute, 24hrs. a day, seven days a week, if the orders were there. 

  I could go on for hours or days with different marble sites history. As some know and have heard, and some think I should be quiet.  Enough for now, but just a little info that some may have not heard or know today.  Jackson and or Davis history and details can be lengthy. I talked with Wilson Davis many times. He passed away a couple years ago. As with the so many, who were good friends, and willing to share their time with me and all my never ending questions. 

American Machine Made Marbles(blue book)by Mike Johnson and Susie Metzler is the BEST marble book for the history of WV marble companies.  Lots of years and many peoples work into this book.  

[Chad G.]

Thanks Ron, great pix. I know I have quite a few Jackson a few Cairo & maybe some Davis. Davis probably only about 5 - 10 I'd really have to dig to find em.  All piled together, I know that's no way to keep em but if I don't fiddle through them all the time they won't get beat on. "Thanks again" for the pix Ron.  

[Ric]

Some of that dirty Vitrolite in a Jackson:

[Chad G.]

Nice clean mib Ric, 

[Tommy]

Great info in there Ron thanks . Good thread now I gotta start sorting swirls lol.

[Ric]

These are the Cairos from Everett Grist's Big Book of Marbles (3rd ed., 2006) Plate #209, p. 97.

[wvrons]

Ric, check and see if that top left white base and blue swirl glows ? 

[Ric]

11 hours ago, wvrons said:

Ric, check and see if that top left white base and blue swirl glows ? 

It sure does, Ron. At first I thought it looked a bit like a Jackson but the blue is a bit different than the similar Jacksons I have. And I thought Cairo used some of that dirty Vitrolite too. They did make marbles that fluoresced, right?

[wvrons]

I think that marble is a Jackson. We did find some Jackson marbles there. This was the main or most often Jackson found there. There are different shades of this blue Jackson. Sometimes depends on how thick or thin the blue was or how much the white is in with the blue.  We also found a few Davis at the Cairo site.  Most of the Davis were the clear base and twisted yellow almost cat eye. A few of the coke bottle green and brown Davis were found there. These people from Heaton, Cairo, Davis, Playrite and Jackson were neighbors. All were related except Carrol Jackson. All during the same time frame. I am sure they helped each other. We know for sure that the Heaton site had marbles from at least six other companies. The Jackson and Davis sites were not contaminated with any other companies marbles. 

These are the clear base Jacksons with the dirty white Vitrolite cullet and blue swirl. The dirty white Vitrolite glass will glow. Many Jacksons have this dirty white Vitrolite cullet used in them. These can be found in all the original Jacksons mesh bags. The blue will vary but the dirty white Vitrolite is near the same and always glows bright. I think Jackson, Playrite and Davis all shared probably one dump truck load of this dirty white Vitrolite cullet. I have never seen it at any other marble site or used in any other marbles other than these three companies. This is a plus in identifying 40% of those three companies marbles. Not all the marbles they produced glow. But 40% of all the Jackson, Playrite and Davis, glow bright because of this odd or rare Vitrolite cullet used. This dirty white is a give away for me spotting these companies marbles. 

Jacksons

 

[wvrons]

Cairo Novelty does have some marbles that glow but I don't think it is from the dirty white Vitrolite cullet.  I am not sure that I ever found any of the dirty white Vitrolite cullet at the Heaton or Cairo sites. But that is from memory and it is getting old. I did bring home 3 or 4 different shades of white Vitrolite this last two years from the Heaton site. None of it glowed. But I don't have examples of everything there. There could be small amounts of the dirty Vitrolite at Heaton or Cairo ?  But I have no doubts the majority went to Jackson, Playrite and Davis. These three were also not located in Cairo. All three were located just outside Pennsboro. In the mid 1940's US RT50 was a crooked, two lane, very steep hilly road from Vienna(Parkersburg)to Ritchie county WV. It was a long, about 50+ miles each way trip with a load of cullet in a single axle dump truck along with all the other tractor trailers on this route. Jackson, Playrite and Davis were much smaller operations than the others. They were close together and making very similar marbles, some the exact same.  So I think they likely shared one dump truck load of this certain Vitrolite cullet. Vitrolite may have had a batch they did not like or turn out as expected. So they sold it, maybe all of it, to Jackson, Playrite and Davis. I doubt that the dump truck would have made the trip from Rt50 into the town of Cairo for delivery of a few hundred pounds of this dirty white cullet. The road into Cairo is lots worse than Rt50.