Made In England?

[Steph]

Codeg box. (griff's box)

It says "British Made". The other Codeg pix I have say "foreign".

Would these have been made on a House of Marbles machine, or ... ?

[tony]

Hi there.

Thats an interesting box of marbles.British made?.Tell me more........Please.

Has anyone else come across them before?

[moremarbles4me]

This is another example of a English marble box. On the end flap it say "Made by Irene MFG. Co. LTD. London England".

Charles

[Steph]

Charles, that box is a beaut!

The glimpse we get of the marbles looks like they could be an older (much nicer) version of the ones in the Codeg box. Somewhere on a Master to Imperial continuum, with the Irene closer to Master and the Codeg closer to Imperial.

I wonder if Scott was onto something with his British Ancestry thing. Or some other loophole. For example, if they were made in British colonies by companies with British corporate offices could they legally have been called British-made? (even if the workers were, say, Hong Kong natives?)

[moremarbles4me]

Here's a picture of the boxes endflap and the marbles.

Charles

[Steph]

Oh wow. Nice, smooth, vintage, but sure as shootin' that's what we've been calling Imperial!

[Steph]

Tony, what is your understanding of the term "British made"?

Could it ever have included things made in any British territory around the world, not just in Great Britain proper?

Steph

[tony]

Hi all.

my idea of British made these days would be made in England.I assume if we go back to the commonwealth period then made anywhere within the british commonwealth.Question is where were they made,or were they just packed in britain.

Codeg (Cowen De Groot) was more of a general toy company making and selling all types of toys from board games,tin plate,and later the now collectable Dr Who Daleks from the mid 1960's.personally i cannot see all the componants to these toys being made in England,so i expect they were just assembled or packed here.I don't know when they started in business but they were certainly active from the 1940's.Have a feeling that Cowen De Groot may of merged with two american toy company's in the Early 1990's.One of these may of been Dekkertoys.Cannot remember where i saw that,so its worth chasing.The Codeg box certainly has an early post war feel to it,and would love to see more of these,and the marbles they contain.

Now those Irene mib's look familiar.I brought several thousand marbles from a chappy last year when i started to collect marbles. They were his and his childrens collections,all modern types but lots of variety which was the big pull for me at that time.Amongst them were hundreds of purple,pale blue,and some green types very simular to those finely swirled types in the picture.I am still assuming mine are modern ones.Could the same company still be producing them for someone else?.

[Al Oregon]

Out of my collection, here are some bag pictures of Codeg - some say 'Empire Made' and some say 'Foreign Made'. The 'empire' jives with Tony's mentioning somewhee in the British Empire so maybe the Made in England meant just that...?

[Al Oregon]

And here is a pic of a Codeg box with wirepulls - not mine.

[Steph]

Could the same company still be producing them for someone else?.

Most of the marbles we buy in the U.S. with that general style are made in China. We call them Imperial marbles because the Imperial Toy Company is their most famous distributor here. Imperial was founded in 1969, after Irene and Codeg sold their marbles.

Perhaps Irene and Codeg licensed machines in Hong Kong, and then after the British companies left the operation, Imperial picked up the license?

But would the marble factory being located in a British Crown Colony and run by a British company be enough to allow Codeg to say "British Made"? (When their marbles came from Germany or Japan, they said "Foreign".)

Or did the marbles actually have to be made in England to earn that label? That's the question of the day.

Could it be that the marbles actually were made in England? Maybe the machines were first operated in England, and then relocated to Hong Kong to take advantage of cheaper labor?

Maybe I'll write House of Marbles and ask them.

[Steph]

Out of my collection, here are some bag pictures of Codeg - some say 'Empire Made' and some say 'Foreign Made'. The 'empire' jives with Tony's mentioning somewhee in the British Empire so maybe the Made in England meant just that...?

Yeah, what Al said. lol. (I even reloaded the page to see if someone else had made a post while I was drafting mine, but yours didn't show up, Al.)

It would make sense that manufacturers in British territories would want to be allowed to claim the advantages of being part of the Empire. And one of those would be the right to say their wares were authentically British.

[Steph]

This Codeg Gloria Marble Mosaic box has foil marbles from Germany. It says "Made in England, Marbles Foreign".

[tony]

Seems as if the marbles may of been sourced from all over the place.China could be a possibility for the Empire marked pieces,but India was the jewel in Britains crown.Many companys that operated from India were set up by British companys,many are still going,dispite not being British owned.Its just a thought as marbles are produced there today.Hong Kong and China are other strong contenders,no doubts about it.

I wonder if any of Cowen De Groots archives still excist,as it could give a few clues?.