Mostly Pix - Fake Chinas, Tennessee/atlanta Porcelains

[Steph]

After Galen's thread about the penguin I realized we could use some good pix of these on file for newbies.

Here's what some of the earliest simplest "Atlanta Porcelains" looked like. ("Early" here means appearing on the market sometime around 1991.) The picture is from this archived page of Marble Alan's site.

This is part of what Alan said about them there,

.... these are probably spheres that were used in mill drums. It needs to be noted that to my knowledge they never appeared in any collections prior to 1991 and they have never been encountered during archaeological investigations.

These "marbles," being comprised of industrial porcelain (introduced to America sometime after 1860), are heavy to the touch and measure 3/4" or slightly smaller and sometimes up to 13/16". When painted, they will often be brown, red, green, blue, purple, or beige. Some have designs on them, most likely a single star that exposes the natural color of the underlying porcelain. I surmise that these were made by placing on the sphere one of those stick-on stars teachers like to put on highly graded exams, dipping it in paint, then removing the star following drying of the paint. Others I have seen have even been brashly decorated with a magic marker, often in geometric patterns.

In this thread, Bad Auction Picture - Good Results, Jane shows some of the ones with the star ... and one of the marbles still had the stick-on star attached!

I've just been reminded about one of the most interesting threads I've ever seen about the background and possible original use of these porcelain balls: Atlanta Marbles.

Here's a sample selection of the "magic marker" version from an eBay seller. His "Bennington" is a variation I hadn't seen before, just a lot of dots.

AWESOMEAWESOME BENNINGTON SUPER OLD AND LOSTS OF CRAZING. A MUST FOR COLLECTORS JUST UNDER 3/4 INCH IN DIAMETER. I AM LISTING 100 DIFFERENT MARBLES 4 OR 5 A WEEK.

AWESOME RARE HAND PAINTED AND MADE CHINA. RINGED AND CLOVER PATTERN. GOOD CONDITION! AGE CRAZING, VERY NICE GRADE. JUST UNDER 3/4 INCH IN DIAMETER. I AM LISTING 100 DIFFERENT MARBLES 4 OR 5 A WEEK.

AWESOME RARE HAND PAINTED AND MADE CHINA RED RING AND GREEN MARBLE . GOOD CONDITION! AGE CRAZING, VERY NICE GRADE. JUST UNDER 3/4 INCH IN DIAMETER. I AM LISTING 100 DIFFERENT MARBLES 4 OR 5 A WEEK.

Aw heck, I still haven't found a better example of the most outrageously painted magic marker versions, so here's that lot with the cartoon penguin!

[Steph]

Very modern clay marbles.

The Mega "Rustic", made this century:

. . (1) (2)

These Vacor "stone marbles" appear to have been introduced in 1999 or 2000.

. . (3)

These aren't "fake" and Vacor/Mega didn't call them antique. But it would be easy for an uninformed seller or buyer to mistake them for old.

[Steph]

Here are some authentic antique china marbles from murmelwelt.de for comparison. See more examples at their site. In addition to the decorations being made with another type of brush or pen stroke, notice that the surfaces here don't have the conspicuous "age crazing" which the ebay seller quoted above seemed almost to praise.

Glazed:

Unglazed:

Rings and flower:

One sample from the eight pages of clay marbles at the same site:

And in case someone reading this thread has any doubt, you can check here to see what Benningtons look like.

[Steph]

It appears that the look of the fakes is changing.

This bunch from eBay has three of the white industrial balls with their now easily recognizeable magic marker drawings. Those three are larger than average, as the Atlanta porcelains have tended to be since their advent in the early 1990's. But notice that some in this lot are closer to standard size. And they're darker, and have a glazed look. They're still unnaturally decorated, but in a way they look more like older ceramic marbles. It's going to be even easier to trick people with these.

This is not good!

[Steph]

Turns out that someone with clay and glaze can make their own 'Benningtons'. Of course that would be so.

These are items purchased within the last month by someone who sells a lot of ceramic marbles in the vintage category on eBay:

Item #250190217158, 25 lb bag of Potter's Moist Clay ($11)

Item #140097403085, 4 oz. Royal Blue Glaze ($1.90)

Item #140096691170, 4 oz. Aegean Blue Glaze ($1.55), which by the way has lead in it.

Note: This information was discovered by Steve (Splattman) and posted at LOM. Steve also found that this eBayer also bought a few dozen real Benningtons and clay marbles within the last month. Why? To use for comparison as they hone their own ability to make convincing marbles? To salt their large lots with real Benningtons to make it look more convincing to buyers looking for clues of the overall authenticity of the lot? Some other reason? Who knows. Perhaps they simply enjoy all kinds of ceramics, including creating their own. However, this seller has more than one negative feedback alleging fraudulent practices, including mixing reproduction marbles with antiques and artificially toning silver coins.

Fraud is possible. Be careful out there.

[Steph]

Other link(s) which might be helpful, starting with one for now:

• A Good Month For Fake China Floggers

[Steph]

A thread which shows the evolution of what appear to me to be some fairly convincing looking fake benningtons:

http://marbleconnection.com/i...showtopic=10722