Help! A blue swirly and a clear crystalized.

[Chris Parson]

There’s an online auction ending in two days and I got these pics from the seller. Anything familiar?

The blue one is not 100% round. I don’t know if there is some sort of pontil thing going on there (bottom picture).

 

[Steph]

If the clear is glass, then it appears to be a fried marble.  Glass cracked by extreme cold and heat applied alternately.    But that's very large for the typical fried marble.  That's why I'm wondering if might actually be plastic, not glass at all.



The blue marble is two inches??!!  It could be a slag or transitional.  At that size, I'm thinking of only two choice. MFC made large slags, but I don't know of they made one in that light of a shade of blue, and I don't know if they ever would have had a pontil like that.  So I am not leaning toward MFC.

I'm actually leaning toward contemporary because I just don't recognize such a large handgathered marble as being vintage if it doesn't fall into the MFC zone. 
 

 

[Ric]

I agree with Stephanie, the blue marble is a pretty one, and it does look like a contemporary marble - from where or who, I have no clue. Is there any really tiny engraving on it that might indicate a maker?

[Chris Parson]

4 hours ago, Steph said:

If the clear is glass, then it appears to be a fried marble.  Glass cracked by extreme cold and heat applied alternately.    But that's very large for the typical fried marble.  That's why I'm wondering if might actually be plastic, not glass at all.

The seller says it’s glass so I just have to believe him. It would be nice though, to be completely sure.

 

4 hours ago, Steph said:

The blue marble is two inches??!!

Yes, it’s a big one. I had my thoughts that It might be a paper weight but it appears to be round enough to be a big marble. By the way, what does MFC stand for?

[Chris Parson]

5 hours ago, Ric said:

Is there any really tiny engraving on it that might indicate a maker?

Good idea. I’ll check with the seller. 👍🏼
Edit: Unfortunately no engraving.

[PittsburghMarbles]

The blue one if it has one pontil would be a good indicator for a Leighton marble but I've never seen one quite like it and its in really really mint shape; which makes me think its a contemporary handmade marble. 

[PittsburghMarbles]

42 minutes ago, Chris Parson said:

 By the way, what does MFC stand for?

M.F. Christensen, they made early machine made marbles in Akron, OH between 1904-1917. They're basically the grandfather of all later machine made marble companies and helped spawn Akro Agate. 

[Chris Parson]

13 minutes ago, PittsburghMarbles said:

The blue one if it has one pontil would be a good indicator for a Leighton marble but I've never seen one quite like it and its in really really mint shape; which makes me think its a contemporary handmade marble. 

I have to google Leighton marbles. Haven’t heard of them before. Good input! 👍🏼

11 minutes ago, PittsburghMarbles said:

M.F. Christensen, they made early machine made marbles in Akron, OH between 1904-1917. They're basically the grandfather of all later machine made marble companies and helped spawn Akro Agate. 

Ah, right! The abbreviation just didn’t ring a bell. 

[akroorka]

OK, back to the OP.

I agree that the left hand marble is fried. I have seen some natural stone agates that look close--but not close enough. It may be a torch made that wants to resemble a fried--pretty big for a fried marble for sure---way too big. Nice marble regardless.

The blue marble is a modern torch made marble--I have little doubt. It is just too big to be anything else. I think that the bubbles in the glass are a give-away on this one.

No MFC here--Period--IMHO of course.

Marble--On!!

[wvrons]

I agree all above that the blue one is contemporary torch made. Not MFC.  It is just wrong for MFC, wrong twist, white all on the inside, the bubbles, etc.