50+ years of privy digging

[Flasks]

I thought some of you "marble" people might enjoy seeing the results of digging early privies for over 50 years concentrating on civil war period and a little later, My wife's and my targets were bitters bottles and other bottles of that period acquiring quite an extensive collection

. We did find marbles frequently and put them aside as many were beautifully made. We're now in our 80's and no longer able to dig but we proudly display these marbles. We don't follow the values of these early marbles but I would imagine some have considerable value. We separated them into what we believe are categories, i.e., hand made, transitional and clay/ceramic. I will later on post some pictures of bottles we've found.

 

[Cola-Coca]

50 years Wow, some extra nice marbles you have there!

 

[CanadianBottles]

Welcome to the forum, those are some beautiful finds! I can only imagine the sort of things that must have been available to find 50 years ago. I don't know much about marbles but I agree that there must be some serious value there, I love the detail on that sulphide marble. And those hand-made marbles in the first picture are so beautiful, much nicer than the ones you get today.

 

[ROBBYBOBBY64]

Amazing. Love them all.

 

[Relicdigger16]

They are gorgeous. Man I wish I would find some like that. I know German made marble are very pricey. I see them on ebay and people ask $20 and up on single marbles.
relicdigger16

 

[embe]

Those are some nice marbles. Last pic, the dark one just to the right of 12 o'clock looks like it could be something interesting. Do you have another angle of that marble?

 

[Flasks]

Those are some nice marbles. Last pic, the dark one just to the right of 12 o'clock looks like it could be something interesting. Do you have another angle of that marble?

I never paid much attention to the detail of that particular marble, if the one pictured is the one you requested another picture of. It is translucent and within the marble cloud like areas mixed with what might be considered a galaxy mix. The predominant color is light amethyst. The basement that particular marble came from was originally built in 1865 and called the "Lincoln House" but was abandoned just 3 years later, the wood salvaged.

 

[sandchip]

Wow, I'd freak over just one of those older ones. Just beautiful and thank you for sharing those with us. The deep red one at 3 o'clock in the last picture is an interesting looker, too.

 

[Screwtop]

Those are all beauts! I see a clay marble in the second photo with stripes on it... I dug two of those kind at an 1850s house once.

 

[embe]

I never paid much attention to the detail of that particular marble, if the one pictured is the one you requested another picture of. It is translucent and within the marble cloud like areas mixed with what might be considered a galaxy mix. The predominant color is light amethyst. The basement that particular marble came from was originally built in 1865 and called the "Lincoln House" but was abandoned just 3 years later, the wood salvaged.

Thanks, that's pretty much what I was hoping to see. This style was made in Germany around 1850 and was single gathered by hand and finished with a ground/faceted pontil. It would actually pre-date the other German glass marbles, and definitely the machine made marbles it was grouped with.

Any of those older ones looking for a new home I'd make some space on my display for