Handmades Vs Machine Mades

[Hipocritter]

Hello JVV,

Nice to see you back on the board.

I was lucky enough to have a few small swirls in my bag when I was about 12 years old. They were both beautiful & fascinating, but it is only that they made poor sling shot ammo that I still have those few. The machine mades were perfect for a pre-teen growing up in the 1950's. I bought my first Wham-o sling shot in 1954. I bought a bag of cat eye marbles the next day when the steel shot ran out. They make great ammo.

My pop was an antiques dealer, so I was exposed to lots of exciting old things during my youth. As my interest in antiques grew, finding antique marbles became the focus of my search. For years I passed on any marble that didn't have a pontil. During the 1970's I started actively buying marbles for both my collection & for resale. In 1980 my sons started keeping all the 'round marbles' they liked from collections I was buying. When they came with me to marble shows they often brought machine mades to sell. Both boys now have special marble collections.

My own collection has a few machine mades from my youth & some original boxes that I added over the years, but I have always been primarily a collector of antique marbles. I have sold hundreds of pounds of machine made marbles to collectors. For me there is no thrill like finding a 100 year old marble that someone loved enough to keep in perfect condition. My specialty has been individually made marbles, both Sulphides & single pontil End of Day types.

I'm Hip,

Lloyd Huffer

[I LOVE MARBLES]

Hey JVV, I Love all marbles, but have a special Love for the early German ground pontil marbles, cane cut & single gathers! Here's a double ribbon w/end caps.

[VTAndrea]

I'm a collector who loves both types, especially the more unusual ones.

Cloud in blue glass, 3/4:

Banded type in Christmas colors, 1":

A small latticinio with alternating red and white bands:

A gorgeous marble just under 2" mended by Leroy to show deep lobes and mica:

A really cool onionskin with aventurine in the green and some cloudlike blobs:

Another 1" cloud type with amber glass and yellow spots:

But Joeren's marbles are the most fabulous handmades I've ever seen. I agree with him--there seem to be more threads dedicated to machinemades by far.

[I LOVE MARBLES]

Hey JVV, is that ribbon with the transparent blue and clear base, Cam's marble? He sent me a pic of it couple years ago, and I saved it in my pictures. Here's a solid core with a lotta twist!

Scott

[I LOVE MARBLES]

Here's a couple Cameron sent me pics of.

Scott

[I LOVE MARBLES]

WOW Andrea those are sweet! I love that red & white latticinio! (It looks orange on my screen.) JVV your marbles are awesome! Just wish I could get that quality, that cheap! Here's a 2 3/16" three panel tri-lobed single pontil I bought from Cameron.

Scott

[JVVmarbles]

Hey JVV, is that ribbon with the transparent blue and clear base, Cam's marble? He sent me a pic of it couple years ago, and I saved it in my pictures. Here's a solid core with a lotta twist!

Scott

Yes, I got that ribbon in a trade from Cam, I was looking for such a marble for a looong time!

[JVVmarbles]

Hello JVV,

Nice to see you back on the board.

I was lucky enough to have a few small swirls in my bag when I was about 12 years old. They were both beautiful & fascinating, but it is only that they made poor sling shot ammo that I still have those few. The machine mades were perfect for a pre-teen growing up in the 1950's. I bought my first Wham-o sling shot in 1954. I bought a bag of cat eye marbles the next day when the steel shot ran out. They make great ammo.

My pop was an antiques dealer, so I was exposed to lots of exciting old things during my youth. As my interest in antiques grew, finding antique marbles became the focus of my search. For years I passed on any marble that didn't have a pontil. During the 1970's I started actively buying marbles for both my collection & for resale. In 1980 my sons started keeping all the 'round marbles' they liked from collections I was buying. When they came with me to marble shows they often brought machine mades to sell. Both boys now have special marble collections.

My own collection has a few machine mades from my youth & some original boxes that I added over the years, but I have always been primarily a collector of antique marbles. I have sold hundreds of pounds of machine made marbles to collectors. For me there is no thrill like finding a 100 year old marble that someone loved enough to keep in perfect condition. My specialty has been individually made marbles, both Sulphides & single pontil End of Day types.

I'm Hip,

Lloyd Huffer

Hi Lloyd! Can you maybe post pics of your fave handmades? You must have some amazing one!

[JVVmarbles]

Here's another pic of 2 of my fave marbles. On the left a 2-1/2" 8 lobed cloud with lots of mica, and on the right a 2-3/8" single pontil cloud with floating blizzard mica. Enjoy!

[I'llhavethat1]

Some of my favs, real nice ones so far!

[Guest marbleus1]

Here is a olive green mica about 7/8" I sold a few years back. It is one of about 5 marbles that I regret selling. It went at auction again last night. I missed it went to low.

At least I think its the same marble.

David

[JVVmarbles]

and a pic of 3 of the elusive Lightning strike marbles:

[tankgrrl29]

hey JV, it's great to see you again!!

you ask a very simple question that has no simple answer. it's like asking a machine made collector, "why do you collect akro and not peltier?" but like sue said, it's what sings to you.

this might offend some, but one thing i like about machine mades is that they were much more challenging to learn. seems like you can learn the basics about handmades in a brief conversation. machine mades take much more work, imo, to pick up even the basics.

the other thing is that when you're new and have limited funds, you can still get lots of cool machine made marbles in nice condition. this also means you can afford to make mistakes while you're learning.

but it comes back to what calls your name. if i had unlimited financial resources, i'd definitely have more handmades in my collection. but i still think my favorite pelts would be treasured more than my favorite handmades.

(that said, i'm loving all the pictures you guys are posting!!)

oh - one quick request - it helps the page load faster (plus it's less annoying) if you don't quote the photos and entire text from the previous posts. you can just scroll down and click the "fast reply" or "add reply" button. or, if you do need to quote, edit out the stuff that doesn't need to be there before adding your reply.

:D

~chris