120 year old handmade marble

[Scrappy]

Found it while detecting and an expert told me it was made in Germany 1875-1890. It's heavily damaged but I still think she's cool. I imagine kids or " 'youts" as they were called a hundred years ago gambling on the docks of NyC with this...

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[Jess]

Hello Scrappy,
First of all, I love all this marble talk! I've collected marbles for quite a few years now also and I would have to say that the marble you have there is a machine made by the Akro Agate Company, the majority of their marbles were made in the 1920's and 30's. Akro is the specific marble company I collect

I'll try to add a few photos of antique german handmade marbles, the pontils are located at the "poles" of the marble, where the color swirls start and end. Each hand made marble is made by layers of glass forming a cylinder, then cut into size from the cane (cylinder). Where each marble was cut from the cane is the pontil, one on each pole. They are then rounded in to the marble and sometimes the maker would go an extra step and grind down the pontil, giving it a "faceted" look. That is the extent of my knowledge on handmade marbles. I pretty much only collect machine made marbles.

Yours has the Akro pattern in my opinion, for what it's worth.
Hope this helps.

 

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[Jess]

I guess I should say a little more on why I think yours is made by the Akro Agate Company.
The pattern. There were three or four main marble companies in the United States making machine made marbles starting in late 19teens, early 20’s. Akro was the first and actually the only company to perfect the “corkscrew” pattern, others tried, but Akro had the patent on it, and it could not be duplicated, that could be figured out back then anyway. The corkscrew pattern is literally what it sounds like, consisting of one or more spirals of color encircling the marble from one pole to the other without ever crossing. Some corkscrews have a double or triple twist, particularly those in transparent glass. Corkscrews have a white, colored, or transparent base.

Here are two photos of Akro Agate marble showing the corkscrew pattern, if you look at only the pattern, not the colors, you can see the similarities. I tried to find a photo of one that was similar to yours in color, but this one has a translucent bubbly base, while yours is more opaque, but they are close. // Okay, found an Akro that is very close to the colors of your marble (1st photo)

By the way, I bet if you hold your marble under a black light, the lighter off white/tan color glows bright green , that would be a good way to find out J

 

[SusanMN]

I'm not here to argue as this marble was a bi-catch while metal detecting. I invite all of you to prove the "experts" I consulted wrong. One of them thought it machine made American too but some things he found changed his mind.

I always say that the minute you think you know everything you stop learning. And while I never thought I knew much about marbles, I would appreciate any expert knowledge.

Btw hundreds of marbles is incredible. Do you have/care to show a picture of your favorite?

Thx

-Lady Liberty is hot stuff...especially on a coin

This is one of my German marbles, a large 2 inch one, that I bought in a jar of marbles for a buck. It was badly damaged so I sent it for polishing. Greatly diminished the value, but it's beauty really came out.

 

[Diggin-N-Dumps]

Im serioulsy going thru all my marbles right now..lol