Big Akro?

[Kimbernugs]

Hey guys! I came across a few cool marbles and this one looks Akro to me, but not sure. It's a tad over 1". Me without my calipers!

[Carowill]

2 hours ago, Kimbernugs said:

Hey guys! I came across a few cool marbles and this one looks Akro to me, but not sure. It's a tad over 1". Me without my calipers!

I’m wondering if it isn’t Asian.  Looks like it to me.

[Kimbernugs]

Hmmmm. Interesting. I never considered that. The seams looked odd to me, but the colors and wispy-ness made me think Akro. But there were a few Asian-mades in the mix he gave me, although they all seemed new. Everything else was old Vitros and Pelts. Doesn't mean much, I suppose. But thanks for helping me figure this one out!

[Steph]

Trying to remember if that's Akro or Master.   Now it's coming to me.

They were sold by Ravenswood under the label Paul Bunyans, but bought from Master I think.  

Some Paul Bunyan bags were given an extra tag post-production saying the marbles came from Akro, but I am pretty sure it's Master. 



 

[Ric]

I last spoke to Ron about the Paul Bunyans marbles at the Decatur show in April, just a few days before he passed away. We had been discussing these marbles over many years and had gone back and forth between Master, Akro and Ravenswood - even though they they don't look like any other known Ravenswood production. At one point, probably about 15 years ago or so, Ron had interviewed a woman whose father worked for Ravenswood and she said that she remembered her father making them. She showed Ron several examples and said that her father would occasionally bring those marbles home when they were still warm. She claimed that he made them on weekends over a relatively short period of time at the Trenle Blake pottery factory that was just a stone's throw away from the Ravenswood site. Trenle Blake is well known for producing the very popular heavy white with green stripes dinner ware that was common in diners and restaurants back in the day. And over the past few years Ron had become convinced that her account was most likely true and that the marbles were actually made, packaged and sold by Ravenswood, just as she described, primarily to supply marbles for the wooden Paul Bunyan/Babe the Blue Ox "Perpetual Motion" Toy.

Ron certainly had other reasons for ultimately coming to believe that this was the history of these marbles but this is the gist of it.

[Kimbernugs]

5 hours ago, Ric said:

I last spoke to Ron about the Paul Bunyans marbles at the Decatur show in April, just a few days before he passed away. We had been discussing these marbles over many years and had gone back and forth between Master, Akro and Ravenswood - even though they they don't look like any other known Ravenswood production. At one point, probably about 15 years ago or so, Ron had interviewed a woman whose father worked for Ravenswood and she said that she remembered her father making them. She showed Ron several examples and said that her father would occasionally bring those marbles home when they were still warm. She claimed that he made them on weekends over a relatively short period of time at the Trenle Blake pottery factory that was just a stone's throw away from the Ravenswood site. Trenle Blake is well known for producing the very popular heavy white with green stripes dinner ware that was common in diners and restaurants back in the day. And over the past few years Ron had become convinced that her account was most likely true and that the marbles were actually made, packaged and sold by Ravenswood, just as she described, primarily to supply marbles for the wooden Paul Bunyan/Babe the Blue Ox "Perpetual Motion" Toy.

Ron certainly had other reasons for ultimately coming to believe that this was the history of these marbles but this is the gist of it.

Oh my gosh. What wonderful information. Thank you so much for taking the time to post this history. I was going to hang on to it anyway, but now I have a special affinity for it. I'm going to print this out and keep it with the marble. 

Thanks to everyone for all your help over the years. Truly a stellar group of people!

[Kimbernugs]

23 hours ago, Steph said:

Trying to remember if that's Akro or Master.   Now it's coming to me.

They were sold by Ravenswood under the label Paul Bunyans, but bought from Master I think.  

Some Paul Bunyan bags were given an extra tag post-production saying the marbles came from Akro, but I am pretty sure it's Master. 



 

Wow Steph - you really know your stuff!

[akroorka]

9 hours ago, Ric said:

Trenle Blake

This is the way Ric--good job!!

Marble--On!!

[Steph]

Wow, Ric.

#keeperthread

 

 

^^ #keeprthread is my way of telling myself that a thread needs to go into the archives after it has run its course.  It gives me something unusual to put in the search engine.