Eyeballed really large clay marble?

[TypicalClinger]

I found this baked clay ball while working in a new housing addition. The area where I found it was where an amusement park was located around the turn of the 19th to 20 century. Any one from the Fort Wayne area knows I'm talking about Robison Park. It is about 1and 3/4" in diameter. It is not perfectly round which makes me think it was hand rolled. I don't know if the brown coloring was paint or just natural coloration. The one pic shows what looks like a hole in the ball. The hole is very shallow and has a blown out look around the edges which makes me think it was an air pocket that blew out when it was baked. Has anyone seen one of these? I thought maybe it was from an arcade skill game considering the site I found it in. Maybe just a novelty marble. Thanks for any info.

[High Plains Digger]

Could it be a bovine gastric stone? Naw..............

[duggap]

Looks like what they use to put on the hen's nest to get the chickens to start laying. Artifical egg

[woodstock]

Well it's not a fake egg I can say that for sure. I have one handed down from my late mom that was given to her by her mother who got it from hers so it's mid-1800's and it's a hand blown glass egg. And it looks like an egg not a ball. I think this was used for a game of some sort and possibly drove into the ground when someone lost it or stepped on it. But that whole throws me off. Maybe a hand made Xmas ornament and the whole was for a loop to attach to the tree long since lost to time. Indians also used handmade balls for games as well. IMHO, Woodstock

[diggummup]

Photograph: A small collection of “commies,” common clay marbles, in various sizes, from under a 1/2" to over an 1 ½”. You might notice that some of these marbles are not perfectly spherical. The technique to produce perfectly spherical marbles was not developed until after the turn of the 20th century.



Got this from here- http://akronmarbles.com/collectors_history.htm

[TypicalClinger]

Well diggumup, I guess it is just a big clay marble. I have found a few average sized clay marbles while detecting but I had never seen one so large. I always like finding them because they are hard to eyeball compared to glass marbles since they tend to be dirt colored. I do have one that looks like it has a faint blue line around it. Thanks for the link and info. I will mark this one solved.

[High Plains Digger]

diggummup: The Germans in Idar Oberstein were making round agate marbles back to the 1500s I think. And they were seriously round. I am sure you are right about clay and glass.

[dozer dan]

carpet ball.

some were large.

some were small.

some were elaborate or fancy.

some were plain.

some were professionally made.

some were home made.


either way, i think you have a carpet ball.