TootlesMarbles Posted July 22 Report Share Posted July 22 I recently had a business trip to Buenos Aires, Argentina, in South America, and on the last couple days of my trip, I had my business partner's mother direct us to the antique/thrift area of the city. There, in an alley pavilion with hardly a roof put over it, I managed to find some marbles in South America. I have been on the hunt for unique marble collections for the last ten years, after discovering their art and historic value, I have been fascinated to find many marble collections over time. This one though, is very unusual to me, since I found it in Argentina, and it seems to be a very old. I believe these are mostly Master Marbles from the 1930s. I found them in an old Van Cleef & Arpels Paris box, with a purple felt-lined jewelry box inside, with some marbles that had already been sorted. Bedded beneath the box, was a loose-marble collection of various tyles, swirls and slags, I only barely sorted them in zip-lock bags, but the photos I am sharing is of the unpicked collection, I only cleaned some of the mud and dust from the marbles. I think there might be value selling this as a collection, rather than one marble at a time, so I am showing you a 'raw' find, I haven't picked through this collection at all, it's just sorted and cleaned, and I'm wondering if there might be a story behind how all these amazing marbles managed to get down to Buenos Aires. I took some photos, under normal and UV light. The marbles in the jewelry box are highly reactive, the slags and swirls in the zip-lock bags not-so-much, but I plan on taking more photos soon. I would love to know more about these marbles, to perhaps preserve them as a collection, before I might star selling them individually? Thank you for your feedback, I will wait a while to make an educated decision about the collection . . . I might need to pay for another trip to Buenos Aires soon though, so let me know. Chao! 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ric Posted July 23 Report Share Posted July 23 Well that's a cool find. I have a feeling many of the ones you think are Masters may actually be from Argentina. Check this out . . . 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Posted July 23 Report Share Posted July 23 Daylight pics would help with ID. UV doesn't help ID and doesn't indicate age, manufacturer or collectability. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TootlesMarbles Posted July 23 Author Report Share Posted July 23 1 hour ago, Alan said: Daylight pics would help with ID. UV doesn't help ID and doesn't indicate age, manufacturer or collectability. I will take more pictures in natural light within the next couple of days, I will try to include some close-ups too. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duotone Posted July 23 Report Share Posted July 23 Looking forward to more photos. I'd say there are some Veiligglas opaque swirls in the last bag. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akroorka Posted July 23 Report Share Posted July 23 23 hours ago, TootlesMarbles said: I might need to pay for another trip to Buenos Aires soon though, so let me know. Chao! Argentina was heavily influence by many German manufacturers over the years. I suspect that these may have been made in Argentina by German influenced machines. The more images that we get, the better—for sure. These could be special—at least here in the USA Lets call in @Mojo for a comment here. Marble—On!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TootlesMarbles Posted July 29 Author Report Share Posted July 29 Here are some better photos in sunlight, I included a few closeups of the individual marbles too. These are in the Master Marble style, some mention in the comments that these could be made in Argentina, I haven't heard about Argentinian marbles in this style, maybe they got hold of a machine from the USA. There are other marble styles mixed in too, I tried to pull the dig-finds and cats-eyes out of the nicer marbles. Wondering if I should split the collection up or try to sell it together as a lot? 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TootlesMarbles Posted July 29 Author Report Share Posted July 29 There were some Veiligglas wire pulls mixed in with the lot too, some of them were in rougher shape than others, mostly near mint, and a few react to UV light intensely. There were some tiny cats-eye marbles mixed in as well, I sorted them into their own bag. Some of the dirt-embedded marbles appear to be dig finds, but they look pretty unusual too. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TootlesMarbles Posted July 29 Author Report Share Posted July 29 Sorry, some of the photos got mixed up, but I named them in groups, so you can see multiple views of the marbles I selected. I think there were nearly 400 marbles in this collection, I will take more individual photos soon. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steph Posted July 29 Report Share Posted July 29 18 hours ago, TootlesMarbles said: Here are some better photos in sunlight, I included a few closeups of the individual marbles too. These are in the Master Marble style, some mention in the comments that these could be made in Argentina, I haven't heard about Argentinian marbles in this style, maybe they got hold of a machine from the USA. There are other marble styles mixed in too, I tried to pull the dig-finds and cats-eyes out of the nicer marbles. Wondering if I should split the collection up or try to sell it together as a lot? Love these. I could believe them as South American. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TootlesMarbles Posted July 29 Author Report Share Posted July 29 43 minutes ago, Steph said: Love these. I could believe them as South American. I haven't heard of South American marbles before, I figured they just bought them from America or Europe. I saw South American marbles briefly mentioned in the forum here, but they turned out to be American marbles, is there a specific thread where I could learn more about the history of marble making in Argentina and South America? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steph Posted July 30 Report Share Posted July 30 Here are a couple of threads, one old, one newer. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fire1981 Posted July 30 Report Share Posted July 30 I was lucky to score the group with the bag in the last pic. Thanks for posting that pic Steph. I was going to take pics of these tonight 🔥 RAR 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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