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Clay |
China Glass | Stone |
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Clay |
China Glass | Stone |
The very earliest marbles were made of stone. Stone was used for marbles
by the Roman and Greek civilizations as well as even earlier cultures.
Alabaster and marble spheres were used in England from around the
fifteenth century. Small stone spheres were first produced in large
quantity in Germany with the aid of water mills as early as the
seventeenth century. Most of the mills were located in the mountain
streams of the Alps, particularly near Berchtesgaden, using marble from
local quarries to produce a moderatequantity. It wasn't until the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, that great quantities of marbles
were produced by larger mills. The largest concentration of these mills
was in Saxony, Germany. An important marble-producing town was the city
of Coburg.
The workers broke the calcareous stone into 1" suqare blocks
with small hammers, 100-200 of which were then placed in a mill to be
ground. A stationary flat stone slab with concentric grooves cut into
it was used to placed the stone blocks onto. Above the slab was a large
round sectioon of oak the same diameter as the slab, partially resting
upon it. Water ran between the two blocks, and the oak block rotated.
In about fifteen minutes, the marbles would be ground and ready for
public sale. About 60,000 marbles could be turned out by one mill in a
week.
Along the mountain streams in the south Thuringer woods, handmade glass
marbles were produced. Near the end of the nineteenth century, this
province became famous as the leading producer of handmade glass marbles
in the world. Prior to that, limestone marbles were produced in
Thuringer. The Deutchess Spiel zeugmuseum (German Toy Museum) at
Sonneberg, Thuringen,has information about the production of these
marbles in the Sonneberg area, and in it's collection it has an old
mill from Almbachklamm in the vicinity of Berchtesgaden.
The marble industry was practiced in the Sonneberg area probably since the Thirty Years' War, and reached its first heyday around 1740 when a small group of emigrants from Salzburg perfected the technique of marble production. A second time of peak production was the period after the mid-nineteenth century when German exporting rose appreciably. In the 1870's the toy industry burgeoned, most of the marble miners of Thuringen turned to this healthier industry, the mines falling into disrepair.
Marbles produced in the greatest volume, and most important to the
trade, were made of banded agate. However, the grinders in this region
also produced marbles of rose quartz, tigereye, and other semiprecious
stones. Marbles were used to decorate large hat pins, and merchants
called marbles "klickers."
Agate marbles are still produced today in Idar-Oberstein. The agates
come in many different colors, but most can be distinguished by the bands
of different colors which circle the marbles. The bands usually
alternate red and white or brown and white, although there is almost an
infinite variety of shades which can be found. Bands may increase in
width as they near the ends of the marble to form a white spot surrounded
by a red band, which gives the marble the appearance of an eyeball.
Some agate marbles show a long narrow elliptical pattern, pointed at
both ends, instead of a band, giving the marble the appearance of having
a drawn-out toothy grin. Some bands are less well-defined, making the
marbles more translucent. A good way to tell if a marble without distint
markings is agate or imitation is to hold it up to the light. Most of
the glass imitation agates are opaque. Also, the red and white markings
on imitation agates aren't in regular bands, but irregular shaped
swirls. Gray agate marbles also exist, but usually contain bands of
white or lighter gray.
You may encounter a marble which appears to be agate but is some color
which no espectable agate would be found in, as green. Agate is one of
the semiprecious stones which can be colored either by dyeing or by
heating, the finished product lovely looking with the green color
penetrating through the entire marble. This green coloring actually
replaces the natural color previously present. These marbles then have
light green and dark green alternating bands, and as translucent as
before.
Agate belongs to a type of quartz called cryptocrystalline, consisting
of microscopic crystals. Regular quartz has large crystals. One big
section of this group of quartz, known as chalcedony, contains agate,
used for making marbles Agate has a banded or irregular, variegated
appearance. Oxny is an agate with even parallel layers of black and
white or brown and white; sardonyx of carnelian (red) and white.
Rose quartz marbles were also made by the early German craftsmen, and are fairly easy to identify by their pink color. Most pieces of rose quartz of any size are fractured inside, since it is quite hard to get a piece of this material in its natural state which is perfect. Bloodstone, a form of green chalcedonywith red spots scattered through it resembling drops of blood, was occasionally used for marble-making. The green color of this stone is often quite dark being almost a blue-green in shade. With this background, the small specks of red contrast quite brightly. Very few of these marbles of those of rose quartz were produced, making both types quite rare.
Marbles have also been made of Petoskey stone, a type of fossilized coral, or to be more specific it is a calcite replaced coral of the genus Hexagonaria. The genus name Hexagonaria refers to the fact that the coral cells of this group are six sided. The fossil stones display a pattern of little hexagons one next to the other across the surface, visible within marbles made from this stone. The name petoskey comes from the city of Petoskey, Michigan, and these stones are only found along Lake Michigan from Petoskey to Charlevoix, with the exception of some similar types which are found in southern Iowa and southern Indiana.
Sphere machines which can form large marbles of different types of
rocks are also becoming more popular among rock hounds. Most of these
spheres are fairly large, certainly larger than normal agate marbles.
Today, large alabaster spheres in a variety of pretty colors made abroad
are sold in the gift sections of many U. S. stores. These have little
value as a collector's item, rather as a home decoration. Rose quartz
marbles are fairly new to the marble market.
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Created July 15, 1997 by EMC ~ Updated 1/27/2007. © Copyright 1997-2007 Refiner of Gold Creations "Aladdin" | |