Gutta Percha?

[LevvyPoole]

I spotted these, so started looking things up and learning about gutta percha.

I'm not interested or confident enough in my ID skills, to bid on these, but I thought it could be a useful discussion on here. And maybe another collector might like to go for them...It's a UK auction though.

https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/eastbourne-auction-rooms/catalogue-id-srea10130/lot-1291fc1e-7c5f-4fa2-9b29-b2d800fd8554

[et cetera]

Those are modern dip-dyed ceramic marbles made by Laura Berretti out of Italy.

[LevvyPoole]

1 hour ago, et cetera said:

Those are modern dip-dyed ceramic marbles made by Laura Berretti out of Italy.

Aha, I did stumble across something about that. Thanks for confirmation 😀

[Djp5690]

5 hours ago, LevvyPoole said:

Aha, I did stumble across something about that. Thanks for confirmation 😀

These and benningtons are often (in my experience) the marbles people will buy for you when they find out your in to marbles. Its almost unavoidable 

[Fire1981]

I have one and it’s pretty much shaped like a fat hotdog like the top left one. Gotta love that 🔥

RAR

[Chad G.]

Sometimes called "Paper Mache" by some that's not what they are at all. Though light they are made from tree resin. They can be quite valuable and significant in sizer as well. Once you hold one in your hand you'll never forget what they feel like and the specific weight as compared to glass they are quite light.

[LevvyPoole]

18 hours ago, Djp5690 said:

These and benningtons are often (in my experience) the marbles people will buy for you when they find out your in to marbles. Its almost unavoidable 

Oh dear, thanks for the warning. 

I had high hopes, when I started collecting marbles, that I could hit up my uncle for some interesting stuff. Come Christmas and he gives me a little bag of common cats and informs me that they are "sheep's eyes"... I know he meant well, but this man has spent his life dealing antiques and doing house clearances, I dread to think what he's let slip through his fingers!

[Djp5690]

For what is worth, I watched pretty. Cool YouTube video on cats eyes just now!  Def some cool ones exist!

 

 

 

 

[LevvyPoole]

47 minutes ago, Djp5690 said:

For what is worth, I watched pretty. Cool YouTube video on cats eyes just now!  Def some cool ones exist!

 

 

 

 

No, you're absolutely right. I have a bunch of keepers that I've separated out. Some just because I like the colours, others for the crazy big bubbles or crackles you can see.

Also - when I got a good lot of akro, pelts and ravenswood recently, I'd set aside the very small amount of 'junk', a couple of weeks later it occurred to me that in my excitement of all the other stuff, I'd actually assigned about 6 japanese 3 color 9 vane cats as junk!

[ROSIEonFIRE]

On 5/27/2025 at 6:11 PM, LevvyPoole said:

Oh dear, thanks for the warning. 

I had high hopes, when I started collecting marbles, that I could hit up my uncle for some interesting stuff. Come Christmas and he gives me a little bag of common cats and informs me that they are "sheep's eyes"... I know he meant well, but this man has spent his life dealing antiques and doing house clearances, I dread to think what he's let slip through his fingers!

I met a guy who sounds like this recently, vintage antiques dealer, had a big collection of vintage marbles and did not know the first solitary thing about them. Although to be fair to these guys, it’s actually not super easy learning the first thing about marbles and this guy doesn’t own a computer so lol

[ROSIEonFIRE]

12 hours ago, LevvyPoole said:

No, you're absolutely right. I have a bunch of keepers that I've separated out. Some just because I like the colours, others for the crazy big bubbles or crackles you can see.

Also - when I got a good lot of akro, pelts and ravenswood recently, I'd set aside the very small amount of 'junk', a couple of weeks later it occurred to me that in my excitement of all the other stuff, I'd actually assigned about 6 japanese 3 color 9 vane cats as junk!

I have watched that vid about cats eyes numerous times and I’m really excited to get into a good bag of cats and see what I can dig up. They can be so beautiful.

[ROSIEonFIRE]

On 5/27/2025 at 8:50 AM, Chad G. said:

Sometimes called "Paper Mache" by some that's not what they are at all. Though light they are made from tree resin. They can be quite valuable and significant in sizer as well. Once you hold one in your hand you'll never forget what they feel like and the specific weight as compared to glass they are quite light.

I am just in awe of how beautiful these are. Seems like it blends with another one of my special interests, marbling (the other kind!).thanks for the info!!