Antique glass marbles are highly collectible, from handmade examples by German glassmakers of the 1800s to vintage marbles made by machine in the early 20th century by U.S. companies like Christensen, Peltier Glass, Akro Agate, and Vitro Agate. Many collectors obsess over old marbles because they remember playing with them as children.
The game, marbles, originated in the Netherlands during the 1500s and 1600s. To make playing pieces for the
game, the Dutch began to grind down semiprecious stones such as marble (hence, the name) and limestone until the rocks formed perfect spheres. Then, the Germans began to shape marbles out of
agate.
During the 1800s, Europeans began to produce clay marbles, using different ceramics techniques. Cheap antique clay marbles—which were so common at the time that they were known as “commies”—were made from a low-fire process and were often not even painted or dyed. They were just ugly, round brown marbles for kids to play with and lose.
Rare antique clay marbles were glazed or decorated, and only wealthy, aristocratic children got to play with such beauties. A specific variation of these marbles, known as "scenic chinas" were made with a white earthenware, which was high-fired and either burnished or glazed with geometric patterns or images of flowers, landscapes, or boats on the water. These are so hard to find that they often sell for five figures.
Ultimately, old glass marbles are the most collectible. Antique glass marbles were first made in Thuringen region in Germany, which was known for its glass
toys. Marbles would be created by a glass blower heating up a transparent glass cane, clear or colored, and then attaching slender rods of opaque colored glass. This glass would be fired and pulled into a single cane from 20 to 50 inches long, which would then be twisted. The artisan would cut the cane into marbles using "marble scissors," developed in the 1840s, which had a metal cup that pushed the glass into a sphere...
Antique glass marbles are highly collectible, from handmade examples by German glassmakers of the 1800s to vintage marbles made by machine in the early 20th century by U.S. companies like Christensen, Peltier Glass, Akro Agate, and Vitro Agate. Many collectors obsess over old marbles because they remember playing with them as children.
The game, marbles, originated in the Netherlands during the 1500s and 1600s. To make playing pieces for the
game, the Dutch began to grind down semiprecious stones such as marble (hence, the name) and limestone until the rocks formed perfect spheres. Then, the Germans began to shape marbles out of
agate.
During the 1800s, Europeans began to produce clay marbles, using different ceramics techniques. Cheap antique clay marbles—which were so common at the time that they were known as “commies”—were made from a low-fire process and were often not even painted or dyed. They were just ugly, round brown marbles for kids to play with and lose.
Rare antique clay marbles were glazed or decorated, and only wealthy, aristocratic children got to play with such beauties. A specific variation of these marbles, known as "scenic chinas" were made with a white earthenware, which was high-fired and either burnished or glazed with geometric patterns or images of flowers, landscapes, or boats on the water. These are so hard to find that they often sell for five figures.
Ultimately, old glass marbles are the most collectible. Antique glass marbles were first made in Thuringen region in Germany, which was known for its glass
toys. Marbles would be created by a glass blower heating up a transparent glass cane, clear or colored, and then attaching slender rods of opaque colored glass. This glass would be fired and pulled into a single cane from 20 to 50 inches long, which would then be twisted. The artisan would cut the cane into marbles using "marble scissors," developed in the 1840s, which had a metal cup that pushed the glass into a sphere shape. Antique marbles from this era can be identified by their pontil marks, formed when the marble was cut from the cane.
German swirls are the most common of antique handmade glass marbles from Thuringen. There are five types of German swirl marbles. The most typical are the antique latticino core marbles, which were created from the 1840s (the beginning of glass marble production) until the mid-1920s. Most cores of these old marbles are white or yellow.
Less common antique German swirls have a solid core (either cylindrical or ridged), a divided core (with multiple strands in the center, most commonly 3 or 4), a ribbon core (with either a single or double ribbon), or a complex core, in which two or more variations are used within the same marble.
Other types of old colored glass-marbles include maypole marbles (threads swirled on or near the surface of the marble), mists (color created by overlaying glass on or near the surface of the marble), micas (colored glass with silver flakes), solid-colored swirls (such as onionskin and peppermint marbles), and opaque glass.
Another popular style is the sulphide marble, which is clear with a small figure in the center—these are extremely rare and beautiful marbles, produced in the same location and around the same time as German swirls. Larger antique glass marbles, those more than 2 inches in diameter, were made roughly between 1850 and 1870, and used for
Victorian adult games, like carpet bowling.
Marbles known as "transitionals" or "hand-gathered marbles" were first made at glassworks near Akron, Ohio, starting in the 1890s. Glass workers made marbles by gathering molten glass on the end of a pontil rod, and then a machine would turn that glass into rounded marbles. This process used both an artisan's handiwork and industrial automation, making "transitional" marbles halfway between hand-made and manufactured.
The first of these marbles have a design known as "slag," meaning the marble has a clear or colored transparent glass base and opaque white swirls, and slags were the standard marbles coming out of American glassworks. Fancier marbles, called "onyxes," were glass marbles made to imitate carnelian, agate, or even precious stones. If you had marbles actually made of onyx, carnelian, or agate, then you were a wealthy child, indeed.
M.F. Christensen & Son company, founded in 1904 in Akron began making slags in transparent blue, green, brown, purple, red, orange, yellow, aqua, and clear. The company also released a limited line of "opaques" in "Imperial Jade," "Persian Turquoise," yellow, and lavender. The later are extremely rare marbles.
Lutz marbles are known for their beautiful swirls of goldstone decoration. Goldstone, glass made with copper crystals, was first discovered in Venice in the 1600s, but antique marbles using the material weren’t produced until the early 1900s, just before
World War I.
Fully machine-made marbles came about during World War I, when the U.S. stopped importing handmade marbles from Germany, which is one of many reasons why handmade antique marbles are especially collectible. American entrepreneurs took advantage of this opportunity and began to patent marble-making machines, which ultimately could produce millions of marbles in a day's time.
The M.F. Christensen & Son company in Akron was instrumental in developing marble-making machinery, but it shut down before the war ended, in 1917. Just down the Ohio River in West Virginia, a company called Akro Agate launched a marble-making factory to fill the void Christensen left. Soon, competing marble manufacturers like Vitro Agate Company opened nearby in West Virginia.
These vintage marbles were made by filling up machine tanks with different colors of molten glass, and then the machines would pump out thousands of marbles a day using the same color combinations—although no two looked exactly alike. When the tanks were empty the next morning, the factory workers would add different colors, and start the process again.
Playing marbles surged in the popularity in the United States between the 1920s and 1940s, so all of these factories were busy keeping up with the demand. Hence, vintage machine-made marbles are not hard to find, but because children played rough with them, vintage marbles in mint condition are rare and collectible.
Akro Agate created a popular style of marble called a "corkscrew" or a "special," which had two or more different colors of glass spiraling on top of another color. Depending on the colors, corkscrews might be known as "onyxes," "Popeyes," or "snakes." A "Superman" marble, made by Peltier Glass, features the colors of Superman's suit. Same goes for the "Spider-Man" marble.
In 1925, a company named Christensen Agate—no relation to M.F. Christensen & Son—launched in Payne, Ohio. The owners may have thought using the Christensen name was smart marketing. The company became known for its brightly colored or "electric" glass, and marbles with those colors sell for higher prices today. The company also produced marbles known as "guineas," which have colored bits of glass melted onto the surface of marbles with transparent bases like clear, cobalt, or amber. These rare vintage marbles were produced for a limited time and sell for hundreds each today.
The man who developed marble glass colors for Christensen Agate and Akro Agate had worked at
Cambridge Glass Works, so he employed high-quality glass you don't see in later marbles. The Great Depression put Christensen Agate out of business in 1931, and today, vintage Christensen marbles are among the most collectible.
After
World War II, the manufacturing of glass marbles shifted to Occupied Japan, and quickly, cheap marbles made in Japanese factories began to dominate the American marble market. By the 1950s, the most common marbles were "cat's eyes," which are clear marbles injected with one to three curved streaks of colors in their centers. While some cat's eyes are rare, most were mass-produced. Postwar marbles are also notably less vibrant than older marbles because they were made of cheaper glass. Often, mid-century marbles were produced with simple clear bases and color applied to their surfaces.
