Vitro Cat's Eyes (mostly?) inc. Root Beer Horseshoe, plus 9V3C cross through

[InkspotAntiques]

Among these eight marbles, I have no doubt five are Gladding Vitro or Vitro Agate cat's eyes, but two I am uncertain about, and a third I am nearly certain is not a Vitro. 

Marbles 1 and 2 are just under an inch, and they appear to be Gladding Vitro 6-vane cat's eyes, but I am uncertain because of their slightly greenish tint. I am used to only seeing Vitro cage cat's in crystal clear glass. I did not capture a good picture of it, but marbles 1 and has a faint crimp on one pole with little eyelashes. Your thoughts?  Are these Vitro's or foreign made? (Imperial?)

Marbles 3 and 4 are excellent examples of Gladding Vitro horseshoe cage cat's eyes shooters for reference. No doubts there, as Vitro seems to be the only company that mastered the horseshoe cage cat's eye (although a couple types of Vacor Mega marbles come close).

Marble 5 is a four vane Vitro Agate hybrid (any doubt?).

Marble 6 is an unusually small 6-finger Gladding Vitro cage cat's eye. It is close to a peewee size.

Marble 7 is an unusual horseshoe cage cat's eye in dark root beer colored glass. Again, in my mind, horseshoe cage cat's eye always equals Gladding Vitro.  Except for two others I own, I have never seen a Vitro marble cat's eye with root beer colored glass.  I had to shine a small flashlight on it to help you see inside. Have any of you seen these?

And finally, marble 8 is a nine-vane is a three color (dark blue, light blue, and white) cat's eye. Most 9 vane types listed tend to be 9 strand cage types, with the three colors clustered together as fingers, whereas this marble has actual vanes that cross through. I presume this is Japan made cat's eye?  I am having a hard time finding a match on-line. Any thoughts?
 

[akroorka]

Sorry my friend but I see no evidence of any Vitro's here.

Number 4 is a cool color combo and #7 needs a further look.

Marble--On!!!

[InkspotAntiques]

Wow, Akroorka, I'm shocked.  With respect to the horseshoe cage cat's-eyes like 3 and 4, I have been scouring this and other sites for a reference or link that talks about horseshoe cages being made by other manufacturers besides Vitro / Gladding Vitro.  Can you help out with a link or reference that points me in the right direction? Thanks.

With respect to the root beer cage cat's eye, there is a picture of Vitro Anacortes marbles posted by Steph that have a few marbles that have root beer colored glass, including one that might be a cage cat  (next to last row near center, but hard to tell), so maybe that is its origin.

 

 

[Steph]

# 8 is Japanese.

I'm not sure about #7.   It's very interesting.  The ribbons do look Vitro but I'm unfamiliar with that color base with cat's eye vanes.

The rest look Vitro to me. 

[Steph]

#7 could be "rare".  

Eagerly awaiting other opinions. 

[akroorka]

Sorry Inkspot, lets back up a bit. #3 and #4, I agree with you on.

#5 has the right colors but it is too hard to see what it really is.

#6 seems to be too small and does not cry out Vitro to me. It could be but I just call them like I see them.

#7 is just too hard to see into. Some better images will help.

#1 and #2 are from the Asian market. Due to the glass color, the finish on the marble and the sloppy seams. (they also seem a tad large)

#8 is a cross through cat that may not be touching in the middle with respect to all of the veins. Foreign as well---could be from south of the border but Asian is a good guess.

Sadly, the resources for cat-eyes is not as complete as it could be. I just have to shoot from the hip and rely on my feel/eye for them. Have you checked out the You-Tube video?

There are a few books out there as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdsHJfKPQ8A

[akroorka]

I dug through my cats and found what reminds me of #5. The large ones are 7/8”. I found no Vitro cats of any design larger than 7/8”. All of the rest would have been sorted at the factory as 5/8” and they all were very close.

I did find one caged cat with my Vitros that was in a bag by itself. It has what I will call “coke bottle” glass instead of the usual clear matrix. It is 7/8” and pretty well made, it has a few hits on it so I must have thought that it was special because cats with hits do not last in my sorting order. I set it aside for a reason then and I still get the same vibes today—“close but no cigar”.

I hope that this helps, just my observations of course, I would love to hear more.

Marble—On!!! and cat-eye on for sure!!

[Steph]

I hesitated over #1 and 2 because of the base

 

Then because of the seams I went ahead and said Vitro.

 

But I don't feel strongly enough about it to dig in.  

 

 

[Marbleized]

Number 1 and 2 seem to have that orange peel texture of a foreign marble that makes the lighting ripple. (Just practicing my marble ID'ing so could be wrong.) Number 8 catches my eye. 

[InkspotAntiques]

Aroorka: Sorry I misinterpreted your original comments. Excellent point in what defines a "cross-through" vane.  You are right about the limited available comprehensive resources about cat's eyes.  However, people like Steph and others posting images of original marble bag contents, together with diggers at the marble factory dumpsposting photos will expand collector's knowledge and clear up misconceptions.  And I have watched Behr's excellent videos. Really like the peach hybrids caged cat's eyes you posted.  I have some other hybrid's like number 5, and I think a separate discussion of the earlier Vitro cat's eyes deserve a separate thread.

Steph:, thanks for the input. I agree marble 7 is a rarity.  I struggle about the colors being a bit off because you might imagine some variation in the clarity of glass batches do occur.  The quality of some American company marbles also sometimes declined in later years of some companies (look at MK early vs. late Rainbows). And I agree, the cut lines with 4 and 2 ribbons are actually very similar at the poles to the hybrid cages Aroorka posted.

Marbleized: There is a faint orange peel, and the orange peel and crimps are completely absent from the unquestionable 7/8" Vitro horseshoe cage shooters in 3 and 4, which are perfectly smooth. I have had some Imperial cages (5/8") that look nothing like these. Like Steph, I agree these vanes are Vitro-like. Maybe you get this appearance when the glass is not hot enough or the rollers too cold. I would probably describe these as "similar to Vitro cage cat's eyes, but may be foreign made", and leave it at that.

Thank you all.

[Chad G.]

11 hours ago, InkspotAntiques said:

Aroorka: Sorry I misinterpreted your original comments. Excellent point in what defines a "cross-through" vane.  You are right about the limited available comprehensive resources about cat's eyes.  However, people like Steph and others posting images of original marble bag contents, together with diggers at the marble factory dumpsposting photos will expand collector's knowledge and clear up misconceptions.  And I have watched Behr's excellent videos. Really like the peach hybrids caged cat's eyes you posted.  I have some other hybrid's like number 5, and I think a separate discussion of the earlier Vitro cat's eyes deserve a separate thread.

Steph:, thanks for the input. I agree marble 7 is a rarity.  I struggle about the colors being a bit off because you might imagine some variation in the clarity of glass batches do occur.  The quality of some American company marbles also sometimes declined in later years of some companies (look at MK early vs. late Rainbows). And I agree, the cut lines with 4 and 2 ribbons are actually very similar at the poles to the hybrid cages Aroorka posted.

Marbleized: There is a faint orange peel, and the orange peel and crimps are completely absent from the unquestionable 7/8" Vitro horseshoe cage shooters in 3 and 4, which are perfectly smooth. I have had some Imperial cages (5/8") that look nothing like these. Like Steph, I agree these vanes are Vitro-like. Maybe you get this appearance when the glass is not hot enough or the rollers too cold. I would probably describe these as "similar to Vitro cage cat's eyes, but may be foreign made", and leave it at that.

Thank you all.

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