A short history of Marbles...

	
What is the History of Marbles and Marble Making?

           Marbles, round spherical objects apparently used to play games, have been in
           existence for at least the past 3,000 years. They have been found in Egyptian pyramids
           and in North American indian mounds. An annual marble tournament has been played
           in Tinsley Green, England on Good Friday for at least the past 300 years. And the
           United States National Marbles Tournament is still held the third weekend of June in
           Wildwood, New Jersey.

           The first marbles were round stones, nuts or fired pieces of clay and pottery. The Pretty
           Little Pocket Book, a Newberry book, reprinted by Isaiah Thomas in 1787, contains a
           verse on playing marbles. William Blake, in his book of prose, Songs of Innocence
           (1798), painted an illustration of three boys playing marbles for his poem "The
           Schoolboy". An original copy of this can still be viewed at the British Center for Art at
           Yale University. This is one of the earliest known illustrations of marbles.

           We do know that stone marbles were produced in Germany in at least the early 1800's.
           It appears that pottery marbles were produced in Germany and in England, during this
           time period. In The Boys' Own Book, published by Charles S. Francis, New York, 1829,
           the rating of different kinds of marbles was listed. The cheapest were the Dutch
           marbles of glazed clay, the next cheapest were those of yellow stone with spots of black
           or brown, and the best were pink stone with red veins. There is no mention of glass
           marbles.

           Glass marbles appear to have been introduced about 1860. Almost all antique
           handmade glass marbles were produced in Germany from the period 1860 to 1920.
           There is limited evidence that some handmade marbles, predominately swirl-type and
           end of day type, were produced in England. These have much brighter colors, but are
           also of later manufacture, probably 1910-1925. Limited numbers of handmade marbles
           were produced in the United States in the 1890-1915 time frame. These are
           predominately some of the clambroth, banded opaque, slag and opaque/clearie types.
           The colors tend to be dull and the glass is softer and of inferior quality to German
           marbles.

           The use of machinery to produce marbles was an American phenomenum. In an initial
           effort to compete with German imports, American manufacturers produced handmade
           marbles of inferior quality and duller colors. This allowed the Americans to compete
           based on price. But, their marbles were probably not well received by marble players,
           judging from the fact that mail order catalogues of the time feature German handmade
           marbles.

           In 1905, Martin F. Christensen of Akron Ohio hit upon the idea to use a machine to
           produce "perfectly round spheres". This provided the Americans with the ability to
           compete with the Germans on two fronts. First, their marbles were superior for
           shooting. Because they were made by machine, and not by hand, they had no pontils.
           This greatly aided a marble shooter because he did not have to be concerned with the
           irregularities of a slightly out of round handmade marble with rough ends when trying to
           shoot a straight line. Second, the use of machinery allowed the Americans to greatly
           reduce their unit cost of production. Thus prices could be lowered and American
           marbles could compete with the Germans.

           By the mid-1920's, the Germans were effectively out of the marble-making business.
           Almost all marbles were made by machine in the United States. The following two
           decades saw what is described as "The Golden Age of Machine Mades". The large
           marble makers of the time began to compete with each other to produce more unique
           designs and more colorful marbles each season. This period of time saw the
           introduction of Akro Agate corkscrews and Popeyes, Peltier National Line Rainbos,
           swirls and Peerless Patches, and the rise and fall of The Christensen Agate Company.
           By the Great Depression, Akro Agate Company and Peltier Glass Company had
           become the largest producers of marbles. With the advent of the Great Depression,
           marble manufacturers became more cost conscious and brightly colored marbles
           began to disappear from the scene.

           By World War II, Master Marble Company and Vitro Agate Company had entered the
           marble market. Akro Agate Company failed in 1951 and Vitro Agate Company and
           Marble King became the largest U.S. manufacturers, but faced stiff competition from
           Japanese imports of catseyes. By the 1960's, virtually all marbles were made in the Far
           East. During the 1970's, marble playing saw a steady decline, as video games became
           more popular and readily available. Also, marble making shifted to Mexico, with Vacor
           de Mexico becoming the largest marble manufacturer.

           The 1970's and 1980's also saw the beginnings of a resurgence in hand made marble
           making by a few American craftmen.

           Recently, marble playing has begun to exhibit a comeback, with sales of marbles in toy
           stores increasing by 40% over the past few years. Also, we have begun to enter a
           renaissance of hand made contemporary marbles, handcrafted by modern
           glassmakers.