1922-02-18 Youthful Devotees of Marbles Now Lament Scarcity of Agates

[bumblebee]

From the Indianapolis News.

This is a great bit of history describing the scarcity of agates after World War I. We know some German agates trickled in over the coming years, as apparently the agates offered by Master Marble at the 1933 World's Fair were hand-faceted and presumably from Germany.

[akroorka]

18 hours ago, bumblebee said:

From the Indianapolis News.

 

Wow--that image blows up to nice large print.

Marble--On!!

[Tommy]

Great read thanks 👍

[YasudaCollector]

Awesome article!

[YasudaCollector]

So, were the last hand faceted agates made in the early to mid 1930s? If so, did Germany continue to make machine ground agates later? 

[bumblebee]

9 hours ago, YasudaCollector said:

So, were the last hand faceted agates made in the early to mid 1930s? If so, did Germany continue to make machine ground agates later? 

Nobody seems to know for sure but by 1934 or so, Germany had begun restricting export of many goods and then probably stopped entirely by 1939. I believe too that the value of agates had diminished to the point it wasn't worth the labor to produce them.

As for machine ground, those were being made in Mexico and even California to fill the void, but I've always wondered when they started making them in Brazil because today that's still where the best ones seem to originate, and that's where German immigrants in the 19th century discovered rich agate to keep their industry going after the German sources were depleted.

 

[YasudaCollector]

Interesting, so is there a way to tell California agates vs Brazil or Mexico agates?