Marbles

Back in the early 70s, my elementary school used to hold an annual Marble Tournament.  I never participated in it, but I did play with friends at recess.  I never liked to play for keepsies because I didn't want to lose any of my small bag of them.  When I made my First Holy Communion, my aunt & uncle in New York gave me a rather large collection of marbles as a gift.  Although I didn't really pursue collecting them till I was an adult, I hung onto those marbles and never, ever used them to play. 

I have a very modest collection now, including this awesome solitaire game I scored up in Port Angeles, WA on the way to Victoria.

A maple syrup jar full of pee wees.

I have quite a few jars, glasses and vases with these more common machine mades from the 50s to the 70s.

Sulphides are among the most expensive of the antiques.  I own four of them.  This one is the best of the four and cost me about $250 off ebay.

Antique onion skin

Smaller German swirls and onionskins

Contemporary art marbles are also among my faves.

Several years ago I scored a very large and amazing collection of marbles off ebay for cheap on Christmas Day.  It included some of these unusual pieces.  

More antique onionskins and German swirls.

I made those 6 marbles on the clam shell (the flat one is half of an amber sulphide I got off ebay) in a class at The Bead Factory in Tacoma.  Mine don't really roll, so much as wobble.  

If anyone out there has a collection of marbles they don't want anymore, I'd be more than happy to take them off your hands!  ;-)