Huge antique marble

SilverForBrains

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I was at goodwill yesterday and noticed this beauty sitting in the back of a rack behind some coffee mugs and stuff. I don't know much about marbles, but I had never seen one this big, and something about it just screamed "buy." plus it was 99 cents! anyways, now that I'm doing some research it seems as though there's a big market for these large marbles, especially antique ones. I don't think it's a german handmade one because I can't find the pontil marks, but then again I don't know exactly what I'm looking for. it may be an early american machine made? Any opinions here would be great, I know there's a guy one here sometimes who's a marble expert. There's some scuffs on it, it's definitely been used, and a few divots which you can see in the upper right in the third picture. thanks guys.
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treasurefiend

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Awesome find, its definitely hand made but by who or what country I have no idea. If I seen it I would of bought it even if it was $10, I always loved the hand made ones and hope to actuially find one while GW hunting!:icon_thumright:

This is a case for "DuffyTrash" as he is the local TNet marble guru.
 

creeper71

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what your looking for is a matte finish on the polars.. top/bottom of marble..the matte finish if present is the pontil marks after being sand smooth
 

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SilverForBrains

SilverForBrains

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Need Duffy on this one. Looks like a nice German swirl to me.

that would be great if it is, it looks like a lot of the German swirls I found online.

Thanks for all the info so far guys, I posted this in the marble section too to see if Duffy is around
 

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SilverForBrains

SilverForBrains

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what your looking for is a matte finish on the polars.. top/bottom of marble..the matte finish if present is the pontil marks after being sand smooth

Certainly looks sanded at one point on the polars to me!
 

duffytrash

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yup...thats a german handmade....the pontils are there prob....the bubbles are the bomb...are they glitter....i think its an awesome find but in marbles condition is everything....those hits knock it down....theres classification of the antiques which haint in the machine mades ...theres things like mists and things "the bubbles"which add to the value....nice find for under a dollar....
 

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SilverForBrains

SilverForBrains

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yup...thats a german handmade....the pontils are there prob....the bubbles are the bomb...are they glitter....i think its an awesome find but in marbles condition is everything....those hits knock it down....theres classification of the antiques which haint in the machine mades ...theres things like mists and things "the bubbles"which add to the value....nice find for under a dollar....

that's great, thanks for the info! these marbles are really beautiful. not sure if I can bring myself to sell it now, I've become pretty attached in just 2 days. might depend on how much I think I can get for it though. The problem is my "sales" technique is really just a one way street of me buying and then keeping stuff.

The bubbles aren't glitter, it looks like there's just air inside. do you know any online resources I could use to properly classify this marble?
 

duffytrash

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if you tell me where you are via pm i might be able to hook you up with a collector...road dog might be able to help....you could google lattiscino core marbles
 

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SilverForBrains

SilverForBrains

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Hy Duffytrash that'd be great, I'll send you a PM now. I'm not sure I'm going to sell it, but I would love to drive out and show a collector the marble and have him check it out, maybe show me some that he's got etc. It never hurts to make contacts.

Thanks diggumup, that's mostly what I've been going by so far, ebay is definitely my go-to price guide for all my thrift store buys. I see some on your link I missed though since your search term is probably more accurate. Seems as though size is a huge factor, I've gotta get a caliper. It seems to be just larger than two half dollars end to end, so maybe 2" and 1/4 or 1/16
 

cheese

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Jan 9, 2005
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Nice ridged solid core German marble, especially for .99!!! I don't really see any pontils but a marble that size may have had the pontils cleaned up and polished by the maker.
 

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SilverForBrains

SilverForBrains

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Nice ridged solid core German marble, especially for .99!!! I don't really see any pontils but a marble that size may have had the pontils cleaned up and polished by the maker.

Thanks! After doing some more research it looks to me like the pontil on one side has been sanded down, but has been melted down on the other
 

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