Opaque green marbles

[Newblue]

These are probably nothing special but I want to make sure. The first one is 15/16” and the second one is 7/8”. It’s hard to capture the swirls with the camera but they both have them. And again it would be great if somebody can explain what you see that makes you come up with an ID. Trying to learn. Thanks. 

[Steph]

Even with swirls and differences in shade, these are generally considered  solid-colored marbles. 

 

If small they would be called "game marbles."  

 

At nearly an inch, you might have a better chance of nailing down a maker than in the small sizes.   But in general, it's really hard to get an ID for a solid-colored marble.

[Newblue]

Thank you.  I can understand how an iD would be difficult, especially through pictures which don’t capture the detail so well. 

[Newblue]

Sorry if this is a silly question…but looking at MF Christensen Imperial Jade marbles, they look very similar to me. I am not saying this is what mine are, but I’m wondering how do you tell the difference? Can somebody explain? Is it size or shininess or something else?

[Steph]

MFC's are handgathered marbles.

They were made by someone sticking a metal rod into a pot of molten glass, then pulling out a blob of glass, spinning the rod in one direction to get the blob into better shape I guess, and then cutting the marble off the end of the rod.  Then the still-molten marble would go down rollers which would help it become more spherical before it cooled off too much.   This process creates a recognizable pattern in the glass, typically with a cutline on one end and  a "nine-and-tail" on the other end.  

Your green marbles  are machine-made.  The first does appear to have a swirl pattern as you mentioned in your original post.  The second appears to have a seam, meaning it likely would have come from a company which made patches.  That could help narrow down the maker.  The maker won't be MFC though.  

[Newblue]

Thank you for your help Steph!

[akroorka]

Thanks Steph,

I was writing this while you posted so I will post it as well.(I worked on it a while and do not want to waste my efforts)

It is a hard thing to explain the difference between a machine made marble and a hand gathered marble to someone that is new to this hobby. It takes some research to determine what the difference is.

There have been many “Imperial Jade” marbles for sale on E-bay for a quite a while. The name is quite catchy and it attracts interest. Most are misrepresented.

The folds and seams in your marble do not point towards anything “hand-gathered” and the experience of the collectors on this board will agree that is a machine made marble.

 Hand-gathered marbles are what MFC produced. They more often than not exhibit a swirl effect that starts with a version of a “9“ that will swirl around the marble. The swirl effect often encircles the entire marble, often many times right down to the cutoff mark and over the top of it which is usually quite well encased into the glass itself. The more swirls or fine/thinness of the tail that the marble has—generally the more desirable, they can come right down to a very fine point.

This is not always the case of course but if these attributes are not shown in a hand-gathered marble , the marble itself will more than likely not attract the attention that it may deserve and end up with the enormous (millions) amount of “solids “or “slags” that are out there in the world.

When these marbles were “gathered” out of a “pot” of liquid/melted glass onto a rod, they were twisted to get a ball of glass on the end before cutting and dropping onto a simple mechanism to make the glob of glass round.

This is about the best that I can do to answer your question. Some examples of hand-gathered marbles will help you to see what I am trying to explain. Do some research on them and find the light.

Marble—On!!!

 

[Newblue]

Thank you akroorka. Your effort is much appreciated!

[Steph]

2 hours ago, akroorka said:

Thanks Steph,

I was writing this while you posted so I will post it as well.(I worked on it a while and do not want to waste my efforts)

It is a hard thing to explain the difference between a machine made marble and a hand gathered marble to someone that is new to this hobby. It takes some research to determine what the difference is.

There have been many “Imperial Jade” marbles for sale on E-bay for a quite a while. The name is quite catchy and it attracts interest. Most are misrepresented.

The folds and seams in your marble do not point towards anything “hand-gathered” and the experience of the collectors on this board will agree that is a machine made marble.

 Hand-gathered marbles are what MFC produced. They more often than not exhibit a swirl effect that starts with a version of a “9“ that will swirl around the marble. The swirl effect often encircles the entire marble, often many times right down to the cutoff mark and over the top of it which is usually quite well encased into the glass itself. The more swirls or fine/thinness of the tail that the marble has—generally the more desirable, they can come right down to a very fine point.

This is not always the case of course but if these attributes are not shown in a hand-gathered marble , the marble itself will more than likely not attract the attention that it may deserve and end up with the enormous (millions) amount of “solids “or “slags” that are out there in the world.

When these marbles were “gathered” out of a “pot” of liquid/melted glass onto a rod, they were twisted to get a ball of glass on the end before cutting and dropping onto a simple mechanism to make the glob of glass round.

This is about the best that I can do to answer your question. Some examples of hand-gathered marbles will help you to see what I am trying to explain. Do some research on them and find the light.

Marble—On!!!

 

 

 

Art, I was trying to think of how to describe the kind of swirl that one might see "encircling the marble" from the glass being twisted around in one direction during the handgathering process, compared to the more wadded up swirl from the machine-made process.  I gave up on it, but I think you made a worthy effort!

[Marbleized]

20 hours ago, akroorka said:

Thanks Steph,

I was writing this while you posted so I will post it as well.(I worked on it a while and do not want to waste my efforts)

It is a hard thing to explain the difference between a machine made marble and a hand gathered marble to someone that is new to this hobby. It takes some research to determine what the difference is.

There have been many “Imperial Jade” marbles for sale on E-bay for a quite a while. The name is quite catchy and it attracts interest. Most are misrepresented.

The folds and seams in your marble do not point towards anything “hand-gathered” and the experience of the collectors on this board will agree that is a machine made marble.

 Hand-gathered marbles are what MFC produced. They more often than not exhibit a swirl effect that starts with a version of a “9“ that will swirl around the marble. The swirl effect often encircles the entire marble, often many times right down to the cutoff mark and over the top of it which is usually quite well encased into the glass itself. The more swirls or fine/thinness of the tail that the marble has—generally the more desirable, they can come right down to a very fine point.

This is not always the case of course but if these attributes are not shown in a hand-gathered marble , the marble itself will more than likely not attract the attention that it may deserve and end up with the enormous (millions) amount of “solids “or “slags” that are out there in the world.

When these marbles were “gathered” out of a “pot” of liquid/melted glass onto a rod, they were twisted to get a ball of glass on the end before cutting and dropping onto a simple mechanism to make the glob of glass round.

This is about the best that I can do to answer your question. Some examples of hand-gathered marbles will help you to see what I am trying to explain. Do some research on them and find the light.

Marble—On!!!

 

Glad you posted this. Your effort was not wasted!!