MARBLES
Marbles have been “around” (no pun intended) for centuries, and their colors appeal to both young and old. I played with marbles when I was a child, and, fortunately, I kept a small sack of them, thus “I did not lose all my marbles.”
I know that vintage marbles are worth considerable money, especially if you have rare ones. So I looked at my very small collection and tried to evaluate it. I soon discovered that evaluation is not an easy task. After considerable effort (by viewing several videos on “You Tube”), I am only very tentatively confident about my evaluations. Apparently, I have marbles that were made in the 1950’s, thus they have only moderately low value, but they are still fun to have.
YouTube has some really good videos about how marbles are made. Some of the ones being made today show considerable interior complexity and are time-consuming to make. If you are interested in evaluating your marble collection, good luck and have fun.
Marbles are made from silica sand, mixed with both a flux (e.g., potash) to help the mixture flow more easily at lower temperatures and also a stabilizer (e.g., calcium carbonate) to help chemically stabilize the mixture . The colors, like those found in faux crystals, are created when the artisans that make the marbles add different metals (in powdered form) to the molten glass (e.g., copper imparts a light blue color, chromium imparts an orange color). The interior complexity is all hand-done, while the glass is still very hot.
"cats eyes"
If you are are a subscriber to “National Geographic Magazine,” it recently (February, 2024) had a very informative article called “The Class Age.”
To see an informative video about how marbles are made, copy and then paste the following website into your browser:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4Pe-w9vXhg
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