One of the first I fell for…23/32 ?

[•~Emily~•]

This was one of my first marbles I ever fell for. My boss lost her father and I was helping her clean out his estate. He had a small box of marbles she was going to discard and I immediately knew I had to rescue them. All trouble from there on. I’ve amassed a lot of so so marbles but now trying to learn more about ID. Figure this one should be included in getting going on that. I just think it’s lovely 🥰 

 

This is the box of marbles that got me hooked. I’ll never separate out his collection. I love everything about it, from the plastic box to the provenance.

 

[Tommy]

Great save and nice marbles...I think the mib in question is a Ravenswood....but it's probably an Alley..either way it's a very cool mib 💥💥💥👍

[•~Emily~•]

1 minute ago, Tommy said:

Great save and nice marbles...I think the mib in question is a Ravenswood....but it's probably an Alley..either way it's a very cool mib 💥💥💥👍

Thanks! I just love it so thought it deserved a proper ID

[Tommy]

I could be wrong , lol ....more will confirm 😁

[Fire1981]

I like the blue and white corkscrew that touches the OP marble at 2:00. One thin ribbon and one thick one. I think the OP mib might be a CAC 🍿🔥

[•~Emily~•]

4 minutes ago, Fire1981 said:

I like the blue and white corkscrew that touches the OP marble at 2:00. One thin ribbon and one thick one. I think the OP mib might be a CAC 🍿🔥

Yeah, I love that one too! It’s had a rough life. I have a soft spot for those though so have plenty of discarded ragamuffins. Just can’t seem to get rid of them. Maybe as I progress in collecting I’ll become less sentimental. I always wondered if it could be a CAC.

[wvrons]

My vote would also be Ravenswood Novelty. 

[Fire1981]

I don’t know my swirl traits that well. But I’ve always thought that the ribbons on a CAC swirl are sometimes thicker then Ally’s and are kinda chopped into shorter sections of ribbons. 🔥

[Fire1981]

Crap….! All that and Ron beat me by 1 minute just find out I was right. I don’t know my swirl traits that well 🔥

[•~Emily~•]

3 minutes ago, wvrons said:

My vote would also be Ravenswood Novelty. 

Thanks! This just gets more interesting by the second. The other day I was sitting at work pondering if there would ever be a way to get the “dna” of a marble’s glass and figure out its lineage, lol. Obviously traipsing around on this forum has got my brain reeling….or should I say rolling 

[wvrons]

If you can find a way to DNA glass, you will be very very rich and fast. 

[•~Emily~•]

Just now, wvrons said:

If you can find a way to DNA glass, you will be very very rich and fast. 

I honestly think in theory it’s possible, chemical component wise and all. Mainly having to do with the color components of the glass.  It would just be a very elaboratively labor intensive and monetarily exhausting undertaking. But! In the future, maybe not so much.

Also things along the lines of carbon dating and matching…okay, too late to go back down that rabbit hole.

[jhomer2172]

Ravenswood X3

[ann]

8 hours ago, •~Emily~• said:

I honestly think in theory it’s possible, chemical component wise and all. Mainly having to do with the color components of the glass.  It would just be a very elaboratively labor intensive and monetarily exhausting undertaking. But! In the future, maybe not so much.

Also things along the lines of carbon dating and matching…okay, too late to go back down that rabbit hole.

It`s possible, at least part of it for a few companies. I have a copy of Henry Hellmer`s "secret book of glass formulae" that was published in facsimile some years ago. He was Akro Agate`s first real glass chemist, worked for them (and others, like Cambridge Glass and occasionally - for special formulas, Lawrence Alley and others). Has every color he knew and every color he formulated himself, w/ notations for what they were for (marbles, tempered glass dinnerware, etc.) and the dates he first made them, the results, etc. Every one starts off with "a thousand pounds of sand" and goes from there.

I know a formula book, or at least a partial one, exists for Peltier glass, and many MFC formulas are known.

The other half would be the really hard and expensive part you talk about - pulverizing a marble to see if you could determine the chemical mix of it. But even then there`s a lot lost that`s unrecoverable - the temperature of the furnace, the drafts in the shop, even the barometric pressure can have an effect.

But I like the dream of it!

[•~Emily~•]

5 minutes ago, ann said:

It`s possible, at least part of it for a few companies. I have a copy of Henry Hellmer`s "secret book of glass formulae" that was published in facsimile some years ago. He was Akro Agate`s first real glass chemist, worked for them (and others, like Cambridge Glass and occasionally - for special formulas, Lawrence Alley and others). Has every color he knew and every color he formulated himself, w/ notations for what they were for (marbles, tempered glass dinnerware, etc.) and the dates he first made them, the results, etc. Every one starts off with "a thousand pounds of sand" and goes from there.

I know a formula book, or at least a partial one, exists for Peltier glass, and many MFC formulas are known.

The other half would be the really hard and expensive part you talk about - pulverizing a marble to see if you could determine the chemical mix of it. But even then there`s a lot lost that`s unrecoverable - the temperature of the furnace, the drafts in the shop, even the barometric pressure can have an effect.

But I like the dream of it!

Thanks for fueling my little fantasy.  What a great way to start my day with all of your fabulously tasty morsels of information.  I’m a ceramic artist and have also done glass fusing(kiln formed glass). Im in love with the chemical chemistry side of glaze for creating color in ceramic glaze(although not very knowledgeable). Very similar to glass coloring I would imagine. I also had dreams of going to the bullseye glass factory in Portland Oregon to see their process for making art glass stock.

Pulverizing a marble sounds awful 😣 In my fantasy it’s more like a swab test 😂 Over time you could just gather all the chemical compounds of each color and form a spectacular marble family tree. 
All of this fantasy of course came about from me wishing there was an easier way to learn to ID 

[Tommy]

1 hour ago, ann said:

It`s possible, at least part of it for a few companies. I have a copy of Henry Hellmer`s "secret book of glass formulae" that was published in facsimile some years ago. He was Akro Agate`s first real glass chemist, worked for them (and others, like Cambridge Glass and occasionally - for special formulas, Lawrence Alley and others). Has every color he knew and every color he formulated himself, w/ notations for what they were for (marbles, tempered glass dinnerware, etc.) and the dates he first made them, the results, etc. Every one starts off with "a thousand pounds of sand" and goes from there.

I know a formula book, or at least a partial one, exists for Peltier glass, and many MFC formulas are known.

The other half would be the really hard and expensive part you talk about - pulverizing a marble to see if you could determine the chemical mix of it. But even then there`s a lot lost that`s unrecoverable - the temperature of the furnace, the drafts in the shop, even the barometric pressure can have an effect.

But I like the dream of it!

That's really cool you have Hellmer's book of formulas 😲✅️👍

[ann]

1 hour ago, •~Emily~• said:

All of this fantasy of course came about from me wishing there was an easier way to learn to ID 

Wouldn`t that be nice!!

Did a little ceramics myself (well, about 40 years ago! I`m actually an art historian with an archaeological bent) and it fascinated me too - Especially not knowing exactly how the glaze was going to turn out. Celedon green? Or maybe with a flush of red on one side? Magical.

[ann]

2 minutes ago, Tommy said:

That's really cool you have Hellmer's book of formulas 😲✅️👍

It`s really interesting. I think it`s the most bookmarked and scribbled-in book I have, and for me that`s saying something!

[Peltier Mibber]

13 hours ago, wvrons said:

My vote would also be Ravenswood Novelty. 

X2

[chicagocyclist]

For me there's something about the size about a marble that is 23/32" . It's a significant size and looks really awesome and you can see details so nicely! It generally distorts the design in a gentle and interesting way. To me, it is in near perfect size for a marble!!  I completely understand why a marble that is that size caught your initial attention!  Plus it's acompletely awesome Ravenswood!

[•~Emily~•]

44 minutes ago, chicagocyclist said:

For me there's something about the size about a marble that is 23/32" . It's a significant size and looks really awesome and you can see details so nicely! It generally distorts the design in a gentle and interesting way. To me, it is in near perfect size for a marble!!  I completely understand why a marble that is that size caught your initial attention!  Plus it's acompletely awesome Ravenswood!

You can say that again! I tend to definitely be drawn to the larger size when it comes to swirls or slag etc. This one is just a real piece of artwork If you ask me. It looks much prettier in person. What is it about photos that detract from a marbles beauty? Curious. Maybe I just need to figure out better lighting etc.

[ann]

16 minutes ago, •~Emily~• said:

What is it about photos that detract from a marbles beauty? Curious. Maybe I just need to figure out better lighting etc.

I`ve noticed that too. I guess some marbles just aren`t as photogenic as others - kinda like people.

[chicagocyclist]

5 hours ago, •~Emily~• said:

You can say that again! I tend to definitely be drawn to the larger size when it comes to swirls or slag etc. This one is just a real piece of artwork If you ask me. It looks much prettier in person. What is it about photos that detract from a marbles beauty? Curious. Maybe I just need to figure out better lighting etc.

I know what bothers me and I'm bad about doing what I know should be done!   If I had the space  I'd set up a standard copystand setup for marbles but I do not. To me, it is the circle of light dead center, in the top part of the marble, face forward is very distracting. It's especially difficult if you're trying the seams. The lights on either side like 11:00 and 1:00 or 10:00 and 2:00 are better but very often they're very large lights. If if I can I try to include daylight and a point flash with fill on the sides.  It can work out.  or you can also use side lighting as your primary light that helps with seeing transparency/translucency

[•~Emily~•]

2 minutes ago, chicagocyclist said:

I know what bothers me and I'm bad about doing what I know should be done!   If I had the space  I'd set up a standard copystand setup for marbles but I do not. To me, it is the circle of light dead center, in the top part of the marble, face forward is very distracting. It's especially difficult if you're trying the seams. The lights on either side like 11:00 and 1:00 or 10:00 and 2:00 are better but very often they're very large lights. If if I can I try to include daylight and a point flash with fill on the sides.  It can work out.  or you can also use side lighting as your primary light that helps with seeing transparency

Thanks so much for the pointers. I’ll futz around a little more and see if I get better results with different light angles. I clearly need a diffuser to get rid of that reflection from my lamp.