Old China

[scortch]

I have been detecting and old ghost town lately and was digging a target when out popped this marble. The site is an old mining town that dates from the late 1800s. i assume this is an old German made china marble. The painted lines are fairly faded but clear enough to see the red and black parallel stripes. It is not perfectly round, I assume it was had made, and has no pits or chips. I think it is pretty cool. Sorry about the poor pics but I used my cell phone as my camera is dead.

[duffytrash]

nice!!!its called intersecting lines china....not too valuable but belongs in every collection...

[Bennington]

It's indeed a German "china," manufactured between 1843 and 1910. Unglazed, and with intersecting lines, they were one of the most common marbles made and shipped. Shipments of marbles dropped off at the turn of the century due to tensions with Germany, and by 1910 trade completely ceased; WWI would completely destroy the marble manufacturing business in Germany, along with the new invention of the glass marble making machine. Marbles, including the glass ones, were a cottage industry in Germany. A family that produced pottery/ceramics could make marbles on the side, adding them into honey the purchase price when a "company man" came to visit and collect the product. Note: decorated porcelain marbles came on line shortly after glass marbles - the decorations were there to entice purchasers to select the cheaper porcelain over the glitzy glass.