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German Marbles, Original Packaging


Steph

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From German marble sites

A few items from murmelwelt.de. Several more at the site.

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A pair of mesh bags from among the many things to be viewed at maerbelmuehle.de, the website of the Thuringen Marble Museum. Colorful earthenware and wirepulls. I'm curious about the age on the earthenware and the mesh bag.

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Most or all from recent eBay auctions

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Marvellous Value, the "No Better" Box of Marbles:

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Brilliant Marbles, Wonderful Value:

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More lutz. Older than the box before?

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Crocheted bags:

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Pink:

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Deutsches Roulette. Look at how the marbles' core resembles the flag on the box top. That is not an accident. "Schwarz , Weiss, Rot" means "Black, White, Red".

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  • 2 weeks later...

From the sublime to the ... cat's eyes.

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The auction description:

age: was made around 1960 in ilmenau germany,condition:very good for the age,it containes 36 machine made marbles all in very good condition,size box:4-3/4inch long and 1-3/4inch tall,size marbles:13/16

When I saw the gallery photo for those, I guessed they were from Japan. When I read otherwise I did a search for some sort of confirmation. Here's a page which says this type of marble is from the 1950's and is the last kind manufactured industrially in Germany, Murmeln unsrer Kindheit, die originalen Murmeln der 50er Jahre. The site says it has some of the last marbles made in Ilmenau, and it offers them for sale. Here's a sample lot showing more of the old cat's eyes:

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Big Benningtons:

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Seller's description:

The box is about 5" x 4" x 1 1/8". The marbles are each about 1 1/8" in diameter. I don't know if they have ever been used or anything. They have such a rough finish I can't imagine how you could tell. Says 50 cents on the box. They must be very old to have been that cheap once.

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G. Kuhnert & Co. Sample Box, from this archived copy of Marble Alan's A History of Glassmaking in Lauscha, Germany, and Vicinity. (May it one day be restored to its rightful home!)

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G. Kuhnert & Co. was founded in 1861. Here are two of their ads from the archived page.

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  • 3 weeks later...

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Auction description:

BB Marbles: Original German Swirls Box SWIRL, Original box. Very rare item. This is a box of handmade German swirls. You almost never find swirls or onionskins in the original box. Strawpaper box. Label on one end that reads "GERMANY No 0 MARMORIET 1/25/15 100 SP". Contains 38 Banded Swirls. Marbles are 9/16" to 19/32", almost all Mint. Box is 3-7/8" x 2-3/4" x 2". Box is Mint (9.8).

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Dug at Lauscha!, by eBay seller cocona36

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Cane, drops and other glass:

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Marbles:

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Doll eyes:

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Human prosthetic eyes, plus a piece which looks like it might have been the start of an eye:

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  • 2 months later...

A master stock box with 4 dozen small boxes in it. 30 peewee clay marbles per box.

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From the auction description:

This item up for auction is a LargeVintage Made In Germany Brilliant Clay Marbles Box measuring about 9-1/2" x about 8-1/4" (the lid size) x about 1-1/4" high with the original 48 small inner Boxes measuring about 2-5/8" x about 1-1/8" x about 9/16", each containing 30 Peewee-Sized colored Clay Type Marbles measuring from a little under 5/16"to a little under 11/32" in size, just what you will see in my pictures! This box was made around 1940, give or take a couple years either way, most likely prior to 1940 as I doubt if there was a real push on Marble manufacturing in Germany during the War (WW-2), the box and the marbles inside are guaranteed vintage and NOT a newer reproduction Set and if you would buy them and aren't pleased with your purchase, I'll gladly refund your money! The box is in nice original "Old Store Stock" condition, has some waviness and light bowing in and out, mainly on the sides of the lid and bottom half, some bubbling on the colorful paper label and the corner tape and has some age spotting, light water marks, discoloration, etc.., with minimal rub or wear, if much of any, and the marbles are in unplayed with like new condition with any damage being from rubbing one another if they even have any at all, in fact I only opened one of the small boxes for my pictures and as far as I know, the rest were never opened since the day they were made, an overall very nice Item that would make a real neat addition to your Vintage Marble Collection especially if you don't have one of these yet!

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  • 2 months later...

Marble stands, to hold ceramics when firing:

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From the auction description:

RARE Bennington & China Marble Kiln Stands

Lot of 5 stands that were used to hold marbles when they were fired in the kiln. Each has 3 points the marble would sit on. A vintage marble display stand that lets you see how the glaze would collect around the points of the stand and create the eyes you see on Benningtons and chinas.

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  • 4 months later...

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How marbles shipped from Germany.

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From the seller's auction description:

Antique Bennington Marbles Wood Crate Red Star Line 20s

You are bidding on an authentic wooden freight crate that was used to crate boxes of Bennington marbles from Europe to the United States in the 1920s. The crate measures 21" x 23" x 14.5." Three of the sides of the crate are stamped with: RED STAR LINE/ BALTIMORE/ ANTWERP. Good luck bidding!

Be sure to check our other auctions for an original box of Bennington hand-made marbles that were originally shipped in this crate.

Here's one of the boxes from that crate:

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The description for that box:

You are bidding on an antique, original box of 100 Bennington marbles. The marbles are in mint condition--they've never been played with. The marbles each measure approximately 1/2" in width. There is one especially unique marble in this lot: there is one brown marble that is significantly smaller than the other marbles (see picture). There are 37 blue marbles and 63 brown marbles in this box. The top of the box is stamped, "Made in Germany.“ The box measures 3 5/8" x 2 5/8" x 2." Good luck bidding!

Another box from the crate had this mix of colors, including one fancy bennie:

There are 30 blue marbles and 69 brown marbles and 1 two-tone marble in this box.

Here's another Bennie box which I'm moving down here from a previous post. I don't remember whether it was from this seller or not. I like the box because of the sticker, which says Agate-Marbles, Imitation. That was a name bennies were sold under. It also says there are 500 pieces in here, instead of the 100 I think there are actually, but maybe we can ignore that. happy.gif (actually I've seen more than one box with this sticker error, fwiw)

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  • 1 month later...

China marbles, Black ballot:

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That is only the top of the box as noted in the seller's description:

This item is group of early black china ballot marbles and a box cover with a label marked "Black Ballot China Marbles - Made In Germany". The cover is 2 1/2 inches wide, 3 1/4 inches high, 5/8 inches deep and in very good condition. There is no bottom to the box....This item will make a great addition to your collection.

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Tabletop croquet games with unglazed white clay marbles. Each marble has a different color ribbon. One has a gold ribbon.

One of the boxes says "Germany."

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Edited by modularforms
To save attachment room without reducing pic size
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  • 4 weeks later...

That's some wonderful color!

I tried to keep your post at the end of the thread for as long as possible. icon6.gif but I have to break in now with these. I've been looking for a picture of a sulphides box for a long time!

From a 2004 Morphy auction:

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1 1/8"

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  • 4 months later...

A wooden box of clear (crystal) marbles. If this box is illustrated in any extant materials we are unaware of it. If you have seen it before, it would be great to hear from you.

Note the label. I can't quite make out the German spelling for Crystal, but see what is printed below. "With threads" would have meant latticinios.

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  • 1 year later...

Must see Morphy Auctions for February 26 & 27, 2010. Not a chance of me being able to copy all the packaging images over to here. I probably won't even try to get half. I just hope they leave those pictures in their archive. If you love German handmades, go check out that auction.

Here are a few of the boxes just to get things started. The single marbles are also fantastic. I haven't even looked at them all yet. Back I go now! , , , (does this link work?)

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Edit: Not sure if these are "real". Does the wear look right on the first box? Or does it seem as if the label should be more damaged considering where the wear on the box is?

Possible explanation: Could be all old materials but married into new "original packaging".

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I LOVE getting new names to Google!

Found some of the names from these Müller boxes in a couple of books. One from 1917 had only "snippet" view.

Here are a couple of full view texts. One from 1907. One from 1896. More names and keywords to look up later!

Deutschlands glas-industrie: adressbuch sämtlicher deutschen glashütten.

Thüringen: Ein geographisches Handbuch, Volume 3 By Fritz Regel

The first is big print with just 3 entries on the page. My computer is slow loading right now and I'm having trouble getting a bigger view of what is in the book. The 2nd is a nice compact list of glasshouses in Thuringen. Now to learn to read German!

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  • 1 month later...

Heard (and saw) some things which made me wonder about the authenticity of some of the boxes from the Morphy auction.

Still some great names. The Mueller company was real. Glad to learn about it. But there's some question, for example, about whether the labels as affixed were original to the boxes.

Anyone have any info or opinions on that? Comments welcome now or later. Thanks!

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