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Back from Vacay....Yasuda here?


Parmcat

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Thanks for your help @Ric. I also identify the marble as a pre-war Figure 8. At that time, Naoyuki Seike was producing both transitionals and machine-mades at his factory in Hanaten, Osaka. There is a correspondence in color combinations between the Figure 8s and the transitionals.

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His business started in 1924 and was known as “Seike Marble Works” before WWII.

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This advertisement appears in the 1937 edition of New Japan Trademark Directory 「新興日本商標総覧」.

In May 1942, a joint company called Nippon Special Glass Ball was formed by Seike, Nakanishi, and Yanagawa. This was part of a wartime industry consolidation effort by the government. The plan was to reduce the number of marble factories to just two—one led by Seike’s group, and the other by Isogami, Yasuda and others. However, as the war situation worsened, only Seike’s group was allowed to continue, while the others were forced to shut down or shift to other business.

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After the war, Nippon Special Glass Ball was reorganized as a corporation in May 1948.

This article from the Official Gazette was provided by Brian Graham to me in December 2021.

The name 'Nippon Special Glass Ball Mfg. Co. Ltd.' is the English wording Naoyuki Seike himself used in an export brochure for the Duck Brand, which was produced around 1952. Please refer to the Marble-Related Document section for the details of the brochure. 

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7 hours ago, Fire1981 said:

WHAT?  Machine Made post WW1 ??? Not to question but this blows my marble mind.🔥

RAR

Seike did make machine-mades in the pre-war period.

Below is from his earliest patent for a glass crucible designed to provide automatic glass flow from a bottom opening for marble production.

Utility Model No. 2564 (Showa 6) was filed on August 7, 1930.

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The Duck Marble brochure (intended for the Japanese market) features a photograph of Seike’s marble-making system from around 1932.

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His marble rollers are constructed in layers. Instead of the spiral grooves found in standard marble machines, his use parallel grooves. This results in the distinctive tiered structure. 

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