DON'T LOSE YOUR MARBLES

by Wayne Mattox

Noted antique dealer, Elmer P. Thinkwhile, and his long-time sidekick, Professor JP Livingston, where strolling New York City's Central Park after having lunched with the famous American furniture dealers, the Sacks. Near a statue of Horace Greeley, they came upon a group of tykes sitting around a chalk circle playing marbles. Thinkwhile stopped. His trained eyes bulged. Half the marbles in the game, were not just marbles, but valuable antiques! The diameters varied from 5/16" to slightly under 2.5 inches. Many had swirl designs that were fashioned using an old-time glass gaffer's technique of heating and twisting bundles of long multicolored glass rods called canes and then girdling them in molten glass. Most of the marbles were in good condition, free of value-chopping chips and nicks. They could be worth $5 to $100 each depending upon size, beauty, and pattern of the swirl; Clambroth, Candy Swirl, Goldstone Swirl, Swirled Band, and Indian Swirl.

Thinkwhile pulled a fat money clip from his front pocket and approached a young boy with oversized ears and blonde broom bristle hair. Lying at the boy's feet was a worn marble-stuffed canvas bag with German lettering that read "Lauscha." It made sense, from the 19th century up until W.W.I most marbles were made and imported to the States from Germany, especially Lauscha, a border town of Nuremberg. The marbles were probably passed down to the boy from immigrant forebears.

"Would you consider selling me a few of your marbles, young boy?" Thinkwhile said, flashing the money clip.

The gangly toddler looked up at Thinkwhile and oinked at him. "Oink, Oink Oink!" the boy said.

"Good Heavens!" Professor Livingston yelped.

"That's Farm Boy, he don't talk. He just makes animal noises," a thin-necked toddler said. He had a pumpkin-sized head and mischievous eyes. The name "Beavis" was sewn onto his shirt. "Besides, you can't buy marbles. Gotta win em, fair and square!" Beavis was chewing on his tongue as if it were cigar. He held a two inch taw marble between his thumb and index finger. The marble was clear with an iridescent appearing chalk colored rooster in the middle of the glass. Sulphide marbles have been made from the mid 19th century. Most contain animals. Ones with busts of people or religious motifs are rarer. They can be worth $75 or more. An old marble with a clay figure at its core in color-tinted glass can bring hundreds. The boy flicked the marble knocking two swirls out of the circle that he added to his bag.

"JP, would you be kind enough to seek out a toy store and purchase me a bag of marbles so I may join this game?" Thinkwhile said, handing his friend a twenty.

"This is highly irregular, Thinkwhile," Professor Livingston protested. "We are antiquarians, not pilferers of children's toys!"

"Remember what I've told you, JP, an antique is anything old with class. Early marbles are sought after like paperweights today. Now be a good man and buy me some marbles."

In a short while, Elmer P. Thinkwhile and Professor Livingston had lost not only the marbles they purchased, but their watches, a cross fountain pen, and fifteen dollars as well. Professor Livingston learned two things that day; old marbles can have significant value, and one should not gamble with children who make animal noises in Central Park.

Time is 'tiquing away, so happy hunting!

by AntiqueTalk.com
Copyright by Wayne Mattox ©
Reprinted with permission