Some Older Marbles

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Kevin S.

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Here's some of the marbles I've found. I was told when I found the little ceramic-type ones that the value depended on how many pontil marks were on 'em, and in 1992, they were apparently worth $15 for each mark. I have no idea the truth of that. If anyone knows, I'd appreciate confirmation or debunking. :)
 

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Fenndango

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Ceramics, porcelain, etc don't have pontil marks. Maybe a firing rest. I've read that the clay marbles are virtually worthless so I gave a whole bag of colored ones to my mom. She always liked them.
 

Kevin S.

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Ceramics, porcelain, etc don't have pontil marks. Maybe a firing rest. I've read that the clay marbles are virtually worthless so I gave a whole bag of colored ones to my mom. She always liked them.


Are these dots firing rests? I'll have to look that up. I've never even been sure these are marbles. Gave one away...
 

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Kevin S.

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Okay! So looking up firing rests, I learned a bit about how marbles are made and found out that these are Bennington marbles and those are indeed their firing rests. And yeah, these small ones are common. The "pontil mark value" was about as true as I suspected. Thank you.

Here's some cool stuff I learned from my search, though:

"Watch for unusual sizes of marbles. Two inches and larger and one-half inch or less are sizes that may make an ordinary marble a rare one. Bennington pottery marbles are brown or blue or a combination of brown and blue, and are common in small sizes. Robert Block considers Benningtons over two inches in diameter as too rare to value, and crockery marbles over two inches as non-existent.
Look for single pontil handmade art glass marbles, as these marbles were at the top of the cane, and there was only one for each cane that produced several marbles with two pontil marks.
Collect matching pairs or twins. Find handmade marbles that likely came from the same cane. After many years of trading and playing for keeps, pairs of marbles are uncommon. Even rarer are large marbles from the same cane. Mike Adams wrote about twins found in recent years: 'The rarity is off the charts.'"

So I guess I gotta find some BIG Benningtons. :)
 

bottles_inc

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Okay! So looking up firing rests, I learned a bit about how marbles are made and found out that these are Bennington marbles and those are indeed their firing rests. And yeah, these small ones are common. The "pontil mark value" was about as true as I suspected. Thank you.

Here's some cool stuff I learned from my search, though:

"Watch for unusual sizes of marbles. Two inches and larger and one-half inch or less are sizes that may make an ordinary marble a rare one. Bennington pottery marbles are brown or blue or a combination of brown and blue, and are common in small sizes. Robert Block considers Benningtons over two inches in diameter as too rare to value, and crockery marbles over two inches as non-existent.
Look for single pontil handmade art glass marbles, as these marbles were at the top of the cane, and there was only one for each cane that produced several marbles with two pontil marks.
Collect matching pairs or twins. Find handmade marbles that likely came from the same cane. After many years of trading and playing for keeps, pairs of marbles are uncommon. Even rarer are large marbles from the same cane. Mike Adams wrote about twins found in recent years: 'The rarity is off the charts.'"

So I guess I gotta find some BIG Benningtons. :)
Did you gave one of the matching ones away? Hopefully nobody said no takebacks!
 

Kevin S.

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Did you gave one of the matching ones away? Hopefully nobody said no takebacks!

Haha! I have no idea. :) I won't kick myself for it, I really had no idea about them. And I have no idea who I gave it to.
 

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