The history of the Swedish stone marble

[Chris Parson]

I was born in 1982 in Sjöbo municipality, Skåne county, Sweden. As a kid I had a big draw string pouch, full of marbles. There were a lot of cat's eyes but there were also my mother's stone marbles from the early 60's. No matter how beautiful a glass marble may be, it can never have the same personal value as my stone marbles.

In the Roman age, marbles were made out of actual marble. These were replaced during the 18th century by the cheaper clay marble, which was used till the end end of the 1940's when it no longer could stand the competition of the stone marble who had been on the market since the 1920's.

In the beginning of the 1980's the last Swedish marble factory, ”Svenska Kul- och Dockfabriken” (Swedish Marble- and Doll factory), was on the verge of being shut down. The industry was located in Stockholm and owned by the two brothers Åke and Stig Fredgård, who together with their father had started business and ran it for 56 years. According to the brothers, the competition from the manufacturers of Asian glass marbles had become too big.


Svenska Kul- och Dockfabriken's marbles display booth at S:t Eriksmässan, Stockholm, in 1946.




Factory interior in 1956. Employee Teodor Eriksson and his son Martin in the doorway.



A man named Erland Wernersson took over the company and moved it from Stockholm to a dot on the map called Göljahult, outside of Eringsboda, in Blekinge county. I believe that it was here the company changed name to Svenska Stenkulor (Swedish Stone marbles) Erland believed that Swedish children even in the future should be able to play with genuine Swedish stone marbles. In the mid 1980's Erland made 100.000 stone marbles per day and produced 12 million marbles per year through a unique method that he inherited from his predecessors, a method he jokingly called ”the chocolate method”. More on that soon.

The embryo of the stone marble was a rape seed, which is about a millimeter in diameter and completely round. The seeds were placed in a large cast iron tumbler, similar to a cement mixer, and saturated with water. Then, little by little and in stages, the seeds were slowly rolled, tumbled and shaped into marbles with a mix of plaster, cement, talc and colour pigments. The complete process took about 24 hours and the colours were added towards the end, before the marbles were laid out to dry. From one batch, Erland could get approximately 30.000 marbles.


Erland, in the early/mid 1980's, with two buckets of newly made marbles.

So, why was it called ”the chocolate method”? Well, the name came from the fact that the big cast iron tumblers used to belong to the historical Swedish chocolate and candy factory ”Choklad-Thule”, in the making of chocolate pralines. In my research I have come to the conclusion that the tumblers were probably purchased by the Fredgård's when Choklad-Thule expanded their facilities in the mid 1920's.


Erland by his tumblers in the early/mid 1980's.


I am not completely sure when Erland sold the company but in 1995 a man named Christer Johansson relocated the production to Tollarp in Kristianstad municipality, Skåne county. Christer ran the production just like Erland did, with the same process and the same ”chocolate method”. The difference was that Christer produced 6-7 million marbles per year, in comparison to Erland's 12 million. That's almost a 50% decline. In a magazine article from 1997 I have read that Christer speaks of the lacking interest in marbles and that the Swedish stone marble is fading in popularity.

I had the privilege of speaking to the last owner, Lars Nilsson, who took over the production after Christer, around 2008-2010. He ran the production for 10-12 years. During his years at Svenska Stenkulor he sold his marbles online, in his factory store and at fairs and markets. He also opened up the factory for tours, arranged marble tournaments for all ages and made garden marble decorations.  He has just turned 68 and have recently sold the company to new owners, who is currently starting up a new facility for the upcoming production. That is all I know so far and I will keep in touch with Lars and keep an eye out for the new owners and their production.



Lars in 2016


Bagged marbles in 2016



Some of Lars' garden marble decorations.

[Ric]

This is just awesome, Chris! Thank you so much for posting it. It is very interesting. Now I have to get some of those marbles!

[Chris Parson]

20 minutes ago, Ric said:

This is just awesome, Chris! Thank you so much for posting it. It is very interesting. Now I have to get some of those marbles!

Thank you kindly, sir! I’ll see you in the trade forum. 

[Berryb]

A side note; Rape seed is where they get canola oil from. They couldn't seem to find a market for rape seed oil in this country. Thanks

Bruce

[Al Oregon]

Great information - thanks!

[Chris Parson]

2 hours ago, Berryb said:

A side note; Rape seed is where they get canola oil from. They couldn't seem to find a market for rape seed oil in this country. Thanks

Bruce

Cold pressed rape seed oil from Skåne county is amazing. 

[Chris Parson]

2 hours ago, Al Oregon said:

Great information - thanks!

I’m glad to hear that. Thank you Al! 👍🏼

[Steph]

Fascinating.  Completely new to me.  Thank you!

 

[akroorka]

Sweeeeeeed topic--Thanks!!

Marble---On!!

[Ric]

10 minutes ago, akroorka said:

Sweeeeeeed topic--Thanks!!

Seriously . . . ?

[wvrons]

Great information and research. This is so much needed from all over. So much was lost in WWII. It is not easy to find marble information about production outside the US. Thanks to Winnie and her research we now know so much more about Veiligglas. Now new information about man made stone marbles. Thank you for your effort and sharing this.   

[Chris Parson]

On 8/28/2021 at 12:46 AM, Steph said:

Fascinating.  Completely new to me.  Thank you!

 

Thank you, Steph! I can't wait for the new owners to start their production. 

[Chris Parson]

On 8/28/2021 at 3:56 AM, akroorka said:

Sweeeeeeed topic--Thanks!!

Marble---On!!

I am strangely moved... 

[Chris Parson]

On 8/28/2021 at 4:33 AM, wvrons said:

Great information and research. This is so much needed from all over. So much was lost in WWII. It is not easy to find marble information about production outside the US. Thanks to Winnie and her research we now know so much more about Veiligglas. Now new information about man made stone marbles. Thank you for your effort and sharing this.   

Thank you very much!
Sweden remained passive during WWII, which can be questioned every day of the week, but because of that almost everything could be kept safe. I think it's important to bring together and shed light on as many parts of history as possible.  
Side note: I've heard about Winnie and her efforts on the Veiligglass research but not so much more. Is she living?

[Ric]

3 minutes ago, Chris Parson said:

Thank you very much!
Sweden remained passive during WWII, which can be questioned every day of the week, but because of that almost everything could be kept safe. I think it's important to bring together and shed light on as many parts of history as possible.  
Side note: I've heard about Winnie and her efforts on the Veiligglass research but not so much more. Is she living?

Unfortunately, WInnie passed away in late 2019.

[Chris Parson]

6 minutes ago, Ric said:

Unfortunately, WInnie passed away in late 2019.

That was saddening to hear. She seem to have left something amazing and important behind, though. 💚

[Chris Parson]

Here are a few pictures of some Swedish stone marbles. 
 

[Steph]

 

Lovely.

 

They look like the Vacor Rustic.  So I won't quickly jump to assuming such marbles are Swedish when I see them in ordinary people's collections.  I'm just happy knowing more about them.  With the ingredients you described above, it sounds like they would be heavy marbles like the Rustics are.   Maybe Vacor learned the chocolate method somehow ... or maybe the Rustic marbles were imported by Vacor.  

[Chris Parson]

13 minutes ago, Steph said:

 

Lovely.

 

They look like the Vacor Rustic.  So I won't quickly jump to assuming such marbles are Swedish when I see them in ordinary people's collections.  I'm just happy knowing more about them.  With the ingredients you described above, it sounds like they would be heavy marbles like the Rustics are.   Maybe Vacor learned the chocolate method somehow ... or maybe the Rustic marbles were imported by Vacor.  

VERY interesting! I just made a quick search on the Vacor Rustic and I didn't came up with that many pictures, but it looks similar to the Swedish stone marble. Different colours though.
The Swedish marble is highly unlikely to be seen in the US. I think there were plans in the early 90's to aim for an international market but I don't think the marbles ever made it out of Scandinavia. Technically, I suppose, building a marble with this plaster, cement and talc mix could be applied to other seeds than the rape seed. Therefor I guess it can be done anywhere in the world as long as innovation and vision are present.  Hopefully I'll have some original Swedish stone marbles from the old factory warehouse to show soon.

[Chad G.]

3 hours ago, Chris Parson said:

VERY interesting! I just made a quick search on the Vacor Rustic and I didn't came up with that many pictures, but it looks similar to the Swedish stone marble. Different colours though.
The Swedish marble is highly unlikely to be seen in the US. I think there were plans in the early 90's to aim for an international market but I don't think the marbles ever made it out of Scandinavia. Technically, I suppose, building a marble with this plaster, cement and talc mix could be applied to other seeds than the rape seed. Therefor I guess it can be done anywhere in the world as long as innovation and vision are present.  Hopefully I'll have some original Swedish stone marbles from the old factory warehouse to show soon.

Hope this helps Chris !! Vacor is made in Mexico and distributed world wide under a few different distributor names. At over 12,000,000 (twelve million) marbles a day.

LINK : https://www.billes-en-tete.com/liste_billes.php?lang=en

LINK : https://www.billes-en-tete.com/detail.php?id=217

[bumblebee]

Interestingly, traditional "aniseed ball" candy looks like a 1/2" marble but is formed of hardened layers of sugar candy around a rapeseed seed. I had them in Ireland and they are rock hard like jaw breakers, so you have to suck them patiently. I was surprised the first time I got to the center and found a seed, although the seed in mine looked more like an actual aniseed rather than rapeseed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aniseed_ball

[Chris Parson]

I thought I might post a couple of pictures of the marbles and how they were presented, the last time they were in production. These are factory sealed jars that I got from the last owner, Lars Nilsson. He had a few jars left. 

 

[Chad G.]

29 minutes ago, Chris Parson said:

I thought I might post a couple of pictures of the marbles and how they were presented, the last time they were in production. These are factory sealed jars that I got from the last owner, Lars Nilsson. He had a few jars left. 

 

Thanks for posting the pix Chris  

[Mojo]

On 9/3/2021 at 4:09 PM, Steph said:

 

Lovely.

 

They look like the Vacor Rustic.  So I won't quickly jump to assuming such marbles are Swedish when I see them in ordinary people's collections.  I'm just happy knowing more about them.  With the ingredients you described above, it sounds like they would be heavy marbles like the Rustics are.   Maybe Vacor learned the chocolate method somehow ... or maybe the Rustic marbles were imported by Vacor.  

Yeah , Rustic , here called Mummy

Very Collectible , traded and sold a lot of these already 

[Chris Parson]

I just came across some photos from the production in the 1990's. Enjoy!


The water soaked rape seeds are draining.



Saturated rape seeds in the tumbler.



Christer Johansson is controlling the size of the growing marble embryos.



The marbles are growing.







The size of the marbles is measured with a primitive wooden measuring device. When ten marbles exactly fill the tray, they are the right size.



Marbles, straight from the tumblers, are being dried and hardened on this large rack.




Dry and hardened marbles are being kept in a wooden crate before coloured.



Christer Johansson is mixing the colour pigments.



Finished marbles!



14 steps in the making of a Swedish stone marble; From seed to finished product.