I’ve Lost My Marbles

Posted by: davismarbles on: May 22, 2014

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One thing I have learned while working so far is that a marble cannot, I repeat cannot, just be called a marble. Everything has a name. I have spent the past few days researching and researching: visiting the library, surfing the web, talking to experts, and more. Each marble has its’ own name and story behind it, and I am trying to learn everything. Even though I am confident in the new terms I have learned, there are still so many more to learn. I will never learn everything, but I can sure try. I  thought it would be nice to share some of the terms so that everyone has the chance to be welcome into the marble world.

To start the fun,  I decided to narrow the search by only looking at marbles that are handmade. I have also decided to split the categories into separate blogs. I could make one story that would last forever because there are so many marbles.

Let’s start with the Antique Handmade marbles. This includes several types of marbles: Chinas, Crockery, Clays (Commies), and Agates (Aggies). These groups are the oldest of the marbles.

Chinas: These are clay marbles that after being heated are handed painted. The outside layer can be made of either china or porcelain.

 

Crockery (Bennington) Marbles: Crockery marbles are stone marbles that have a blue or brown glaze. The glaze come from either adding manganese or cobalt to the outside layer.

Clays (Commies): Clays match their name, they are clay marbles. The least expensive of all marbles, they were very common to find. 

Agates (Aggies): Because of the mineral dyes added these marbles can become black, gray, green, blue and yellow. It took a skilled agate grinder to perfectly create an agate marble. 

A group that goes along with the Antique Handmade Marbles is the Antique Can-Cut Glass Marbles. This group is basically all the ‘swirly’ marbles. When I first looked at a marble that had the swirl design, I assumed its’ name was just a swirl. However, the “swirl category” should be “swirl categories”. There are about 9 or 10 different types of marbles that have the swirl design.

Latticinio Core Swirls: The core of this type of marble is very unique having tiny threads of glass swirl within it.

Divided and Ribbon Core Swirls: Both marbles have a core that spirals from top to bottom. And both marbles come in a variety of color. The only difference is the width of the swirls along the surface.

Ribbon Core Swirl

Divided Core Swirl

Solid Core  Swirls: These marbles are from an individual rod of color. Around 18% of the marbles are solid core swirl.

Lutz: The gems of the marbles. These marbles are prized for their appearance and are very popular among collectors. 

Colored Glass Coreless Swirls: The idea of this marble seems odd, having colored glass inside of another colored glass. However, these marbles became coreless and decorated (normally with a swirl of white). 

Gooseberries: This is quite a funny name for a marble. This marble is a type of colored glass coreless swirl that has several thin lines creating the swirl.

Opaque Swirls: These are like a little step down from colored glass swirls. This type of marble includes Clambroths, Indian Swirls and Peppermint swirls.

Clambroths (clams): These are made with a chowder-like opaque glass giving it a milky look from the surface.

Indian Swirls: From the name a person can assume that these marbles originated from the Indian culture. However, these marbles were created in Germany and given a false name. The man that named the marble thought they were made in India. The name ended up sticking and they are still named that to this day.

Peppermint Swirls: Their name comes from the red, white and blue swirl with the marble. Sometimes these marbles are referred to as flags. 

Onionskins: Their name comes from the layers of color placed in the marble. The layers give it the swirly appearance. 

It is crazy how many marbles there are in the world. And to think, this is only one category of marbles. As I asked questions around the store, I learned that Papaw Davis has created many of these and sold more. The fact that Papaw Davis could create these types of marbles makes him a genius in my mind.

I really am losing my marbles. There are so many marbles to learn. Part 2 of I’ve lost my marbles will cover Contemporary Handmade Marbles. I cannot wait to keep learning about what my family does.

Keep Calm and Marble On,

Amanda