What Started Your Marble Obsession?

[PittsburghMarbles]

I got obsessed with antique glass about 11 years ago when I was in college. I was a geology major so I would walk creeks and streams looking for fossils in Arkansas. One day I came across an odd bottle with the name of the town I went to school in. Later I would figure out that it was a rare 1890s Hutchinson bottle. Ever since then I was addicted to antique bottles. A few years ago after filling up my basement with antique bottles I started wondering about marbles as I would find them while digging and just thought hmmm, that’s cool but whatever.
 

The first marble that hooked me was just a common master brushed patch that I found at a recently torn down house here in Pittsburgh. I thought it was pretty and figured someone would know something about it. So, I found a marble page on Facebook and was amazed that people knew what the marble was and where it came from. 
 

Now my marble collection encompasses every marble manufacturer in North America and most vintage manufacturers in Europe. 
 

I guess I’m obsessed with marbles because when I was a kid I was hardcore into birdwatching. And that’s all recognizing patterns and memorizing species. Marble collecting in my opinion is much the same as birding. It’s all about recognizing patterns and memorization, which I am enthralled with. So with my love of antique glass/history and memorizing birds it is like the best of both worlds, if that makes sense. 
 

The photo is of the marble that got me hooked. What’s your story?

[Steph]

I got a small group of marbles for nostalgic reasons.  They were modern.  Then I was showing them to an antique dealer acquaintance and she said those weren't ones that people were interested in.  

That hurt my feelings a little and made me try to learn which ones were the good ones.  



My nostalgia was largely inspired by a bunch of clearies from super peewee to boulder size which Santa put in my stocking in 1976.     I also have memories of all-reds I would have gotten new in the 1960's and bumblebees that I would have seen when they were nearly new.   So that's why I decided to get "just a few" marbles.

[Alan]

A 1988 article in the Washington Post on marble collecting.  Seemed a bizarre hobby to me.  I went to a bookstore, found a book on marble collecting and the pics hooked me.  Boom.

[wvrons]

I have told this many times over the years. I collected and played with marbles since the mid 1950's. Yes I went back to my childhood. Marbles were cheap and in every dime store near here. Most were Ravenswood's, and Vitro' with a few Akro's . Plus I am sure now many were Alleys along with a few Heaton and Cairo Novelty. Then with age I got away from marbles. Then my grandmother passed. On her desk was the first and only sulfide i had ever seen or paid attention to. When I was young and I would visit her often.  I could get that marble and admire it but always had to be careful with it and always put it back exactly where I got it from on the desk. Well I ended up with that marble and still have it today. That was my only marble. Then several years later I happen to drive by Sistersville WV. It was the first  ever marble show at Sistersville. I had to stop and see what all the crowd was about. There were people from TX, AZ, PA, OH and all over. Marbles for sale like I had never seen and prices that was total crazy. There I met Faye Safreed and she was selling Ravenswood marbles from her late fathers collection out of a large pickle jar. Her father was William Safreed the main man at Ravenswood Novelty. Of course I had to buy two Ravenswood marbles since I grew up near Ravenswood and remembered the factory. Then she sold out of marbles and when she found out I was from near Ravenswood. She then let me go through two scrap books she had brought. They were from her father and what she had added.  I had purchased my first two marbles as a adult. I left Sistersville with lots of questions. The next weekend I was going top Clarksburg WV. On the way I stopped in a antique shop and bought my first ever contemporary. It was a clear sulfide with a blue insert of the state of WV. It was made by the late Jim Davis of Pennsboro WV. Who I later got to spend a little time with. That marble later became the West Virginia Marble Collectors Club logo marble.  Next up the road was Mid Atlantic Glass. I was curious so I had to stop. Did they make marbles ?  There was Sammy Hogue making contemporary marbles out of a 20 ton furnace of crystal glass. It was a Sunday and no one at the factory but Sammy. He convinced me to watch him make marbles. When he finished we talked and he said "you have been bitten by the marble bug". He also said that it can bite hard and last a long time. He never had any idea how hard or how long it would be with me, or maybe he did ?  At least two times a month steady for the next two or three years. I would visit with Sammy and watch him make marbles. When he finished it was my turn., We sat on a wood bench outside the Mid Atlantic glass factory where he worked as a gather. I would get my Grrenbergs Guide to Marbles book out and start asking questions and making notes. Then asking who and where they were. He gave me the directions and contacts for so many WV marble people. But he never handed me anything easy. I had to work for every answer or direction. It took me asking for directions to the Jackson factory for three or four months. The book said not many known examples exist anywhere. That was it, I was going to find some Jackson marbles.  Each week he would give me a new hint. All the time it was just down the road not far from his house. I did find it and I did get some marbles from the ground. I was so proud the next week when I visited Sammy. He finished making marbles and we went outside. I ask more questions but not about Jackson. Then he ask did you find the Jackson site. I said yes and he said was I sure ? I could not wait to get my hand in my pocket. I pulled out my had running over with Jackson marbles, some still with dirt. He looked down and with a big grin. He said you have found it. We then went across the street to his house. He then showed me his five gallon bucket of Jackson marbles. That was many years ago. I never missed a single Sistersville WV marble festival.  Sammy Hogue is responsible for my addiction with marbles. Sammy Hogue was my beginning teacher and still is today. Sammy seemed to know anyone in WV connected to marbles. I manage to become good friends with many of those. Many or most of them are now gone. Past WV marble company owners, relatives and employees. So years later I try to pass along what so many people shared with me. They gave up so much of their time to answer my questions. Some I visited regular for many years. Over the years I have dug every marble site in WV except Master. Some of them  many times over several years. I have dug CAC and even at the Alox site. The search has never stopped for information and marbles since that first marble show. 

[Berryb]

What started me is not unusual. I got interested and bought some, I got some good deals early. I was a fishing tackle collector on a low budget. I got tired of getting skunked on tackle so I expanded to Marbles. I found if I diversified I was less likely to come up empty. 

Anyway more to the point; My obsession was fueled by long dry spells. I was gonna sell my marbles once but the dealer who was gonna buy them wanted me to go thru them and price them all. After I dug them out and started going thru them I got hooked again and needless to say I didn't sell.

Another long dry spell had me just about ready to give up again. A few years ago I found the ones in the photo for 15 bucks and I was re-obsessed. This time I have kept at it, but find I need regular infusions of marbles to keep me going. Thanks

Bruce

[Chad G.]

When I was 10 years old my family was moving out of a rental into the house my Grandfather built. My father had just bought it so finally a permanent home. I was carrying one of my Mothers partially filled Dresser drawers out to the truck when I seen a marble rolling around to the side, I said to mom.  Whose is that, can I have it ?? She was hesitant at first but picked it up looked at it and gave it to me saying "Don't ever lose this, it was my favorite shooter in school" shooter "what" ??? The seed was planted.  I didn't start collecting really seriously till I was  22 or 23 when I was a young man straight out of the Navy after a little runnin around. 1986 I  think ?? I remember a running rabbit Sulphide was my first hand made, yeah buddy, I thought I had a real high dollar mib.  The aqua slag my Mom had given me was the first machine made, I believe the second was an Akro or Pelt ? not really sure ??.  I still have the marble my Mom gave me, countless moves, Married, Widowed, Married again, Divorced,  etc. and somehow I still have that marble. It holds "the" prominent place in my collection & many memories that I hope I never forget.

It was a little over 11/16ths  (at one time)   "Thanks Mom"  

[wvrons]

That is a keeper and a rare one.  Priceless. 

[I'llhavethat1]

For me it started with winning marbles and making new friends in grade school.