Naming Marbles

JABO Frankie Gobi Cranberry Oasis

Back Ground and History

So I have named several marbles from various JABO runs, and some folks may know about me and others may not.  I was the original Moderator on the JABO thread at All About Marbles Board and it was at my suggestion that Kevin (FeelingMarbleous) created the JABO World section.  That doesn’t really mean a lot in my opinion.  By way of introduction for newer folks so you all don’t think I am off my rocker.  In my personal experience, the best authorities on the JABO Jokers runs is NANTUCKETDINK, and BERMAR, and those who were part, partner, or parcel to the individual runs, their preparations, Steve Sturtz, Ed Parsons, Jim King, Rick Hall, etc…

I have named types and families (discussed later) in the following Runs:JABO Frankie Xanadu

  • All Runs “Pinky”  a designation for any marble containing significantly Pink color.
  • 2008 JABO Joker I “Precranberry Lutz Aventurine” you can check here for more info: JABO Joker I Cranberry Types.
  • 2008 JABO JOKER 2nd Run “Blood Vipers” “Blood Vipers Nests”
  • 2009 JABO Encore “Electric Striped” “Sunflowers” “Electric Orange Submarine” “Blush Oxbloods” “Cranberry Lutz” “Orange Slag” “Orange Brick”
  • 2009 JABO Rainbow Run I “Oxblood Hard Candy” “Cotton Candy” “Easter Egg” “Hendrix” “Exotic” “Frosted Oxblood” “Painted Oxblood” “Tequila Oxblood” “Goldrush” “Oxblood Salmon” “Superman” “Superboy” “Blue Grass” “Milk Oxblood Metallic” “Oxblood Rooster” “Milk Oxblood Lavender” “Silver Oxblood Stringer”
  • 2010 JABO Frankie Run “Gobi Green” “Gobi Oasis” “Gobi Storm” “Gobi Cranberry Oasis” “Gobi Black Mesa” “Lifesaver” “Superman” “Superman Kryptonite” “Blood River” “Pink River” “Oxblood Green River” “Xanadu” “Murple”

And so on.  I use such names on the Marble Boards, in eBay Auctions, on Facebook and in regular conversation.  When I am corrected on a name, I correct myself and any posts which may have provided any incorrect information on the marbles in question.

In late 1999 I began collecting, buying, trading and selling vintage marbles.  This was a hobby as I worked in the IT Field and the hobby supported itself, for the first few years.  Photographing stunning marbles was part of my passion, and remains so until this day.

However, being a native West Coaster, there were few marbles in the wild.  The auctions in late 1999 through about 2004 on eBay (which was my main source of purchases and selling) began to dry up as folks began to recognize the value of individual marbles.  (More on this later.)  Then in 2008, the JABO Joker marbles hit the market and my passion was reborn.  But the prices were so high it was only possible in the latter part of that year to purchase a few (5) of the marbles which were produced.

In 2009 I came into some money and began collecting and selling JABO Experimental marbles.  There had been an explosive growth in the market following the production of the first contract run now known as the JABO Joker I (J.E.R.K.) run, now designated the Original Joker run by many.  These marbles were produced by a group of private collectors who purchased the glass which went into the run, and paid a contract fee for the usage of the JABO Inc. facilities and in particular the furnaces and marble making machine which produced the actual marbles.

By 2009 I had become an investor.  Purchasing two full shares.  One in the Rainbow Run and one in a yet to be named crystal run, this later was named the Omega run by me.  More on Omegas later.

Just prior to that I had purchased several hundred marbles from various groups of investor runs which were being produced at the rate of 5 – 13 runs a year at JABO as private runs.  These comprised the Experimental or Classic Runs from JABO Inc.  In so doing, I found myself in possession of several marbles which were all called the same thing, Foxfire, Joker Fall Harvest, Joker 2nd Run, Eagles, Tribute to Last Dance, there is a long list today.  The point is that while some of the marbles had been named by participants in the runs, most were not named, and this was confusing because within the Foxfire run there were at least 8 families that I have seen, and a wide variation within these families. 

 

What’s a Marble family?

Well the runs were dated and named, i.e. Foxfire May 14th, 2009.  Now all the marbles produced at JABO in these runs under the supervision of Dave McCullough and the JABO plant workers, were in a swirl pattern, some were less swirly others more.  Occasionally a few patch types might come out where the colors were stretched across the face of the marble which is bisected at the sides of marble, also called the seams of the marbles.  The families are the color variations which were being produced through the addition of colored glass which is added to the base color which is constantly heated in a large furnace of base glass.  They might drop, purple, goldstone, red, orange, and green in the furnace for 5-30 minutes, then change to yellow, green, blue and various aventurines for an hour, or switch up the colors using as many as 12 or even 14 colors, the average was more like 3 to 7.  To get a better idea of how families change look at the JABO 2008 Joker I Cranberry Types article linked above.

This constant inflow or color variations results in marble families, which flow out of the furnace in to the cutter, on to the rollers and into the cooling bins.  A family which would come out, yellow, red and blue, well known colors within the marble community, these regardless of manufacturer, have historically been called “Superman” marbles.  Black and bright Yellow, a “Bumble Bee” or “Yellow Jacket” you get the idea.  Well what to you call a transparent based marble with tan, green aventurine, oxblood (burnt goldstone, but that’s another article…) and some blue?  I thought they looked like Navajo Indian Blanket colors, and so I called them ‘Indian Blankets” in my eBay descriptions.  I noted originally I was not authorized to name the marbles, but several investors had told me, you can name them whatever you want.  There was another FoxFire which was bright orange with dark black streaks and Oxblood, they looked like Tiger stripes.  I named them “Tigers Bloods.”  So it went.  As an investor I named many of the Rainbow’s from 2009, and also the Omegas which it appears I may be the only holder of any significant quanity, but that’s another story all together.

I then came into possession of a large group of the JABO Joker 2nd Run (Oxblood Aventurine Series) from June 27th 2008.  And there were marbles called “Cobras” by the investors.  These are stunning transparent marbles with a dollop of Oxblood in the an otherwise 80% transparent marble.  Others had more wispy threads of Oxblood, others where near Bricks with almost 100% Oxblood Coverage.

Now I cannot be sure when this was exactly, but between 2009 and 2011, there was a discussion in the community about the naming of modern JABOs using some of the vintage names, like, Cobra, or Brick.  These were legitimate concern for folks in the community as new comers would be confused, and the same Newbie questions would be asked and when some marbles where being identified as antique or vintage as Akro, CAC, and others.  There were also concerns about fraud, and some purposefully selling modern JABOs as older more valuable types which looked very similar.

JABO Joker II Oxblood Aventurine Series
JABO Joker II Cobra / Blood Viper

So I looked at these JABO Joker 2nd Run (Oxblood Aventurine Series) Cobras and wrote as article saying let’s call them “Blood Vipers” and the fuller ones “Blood Viper Nests.”  Some folks loved the name instantly, others balked.  But the names stuck and continues to be used.

But because of the wide proliferation of my photographs identifying the marbles with various names, I have been either hated or loved as a result.  I can say with 100% of my heart, I only want to help the cause of marble collecting and will continue to use names which make sense, provide immediate recognition, and photographs to do the same.

Why Naming Marbles is important?

  1. To distinguish the individual families within a given run.
  2. To provide recognition. As in the examples I have given providing names which match the physical description, provides such recognition.
  3. For historical identification.
  4. It’s fun

Is there value in naming marbles?  Well look at the classics which are well sought after.  CAC Flames aptly named and clearly recognizable.  Superman marbles, clearly distinctive.  So any distinctive naming is of value.  But how do we go about naming them?

The run names and dates remain just that.  So a transparent Foxfire with Yellow, Red and Blue is a “FoxFire Superman”, generally speaking.  Now the investors may not like that, and if they have provided a name then let them clearly publish the names, and show examples.  I have done this consistently with marbles I was an investor in and will continue to do so, as in the Frankie Gobis.

There was a killer Superman colored Frankie, but many of them had a slight green tinge (if you find one that’s not tinged grab it) I have named them “Superman Kryptonites.”

And so it goes.  The other alternative is to describe Runs with long descriptions. Guy one says to Guy two, “It’s a JABO Joker Frankie, Green tinged, Oxblood and Slate Blue, with flecks of Green Aventurine.”  Guy two, “That sounds like a Superman with Kryptonite poisoning.”  “Yeah, a Superman Kryptonite!” Guy one, man you’re right, “Frankie Superman Kryptonite!  That’s way better than JABO Joker Frankie, Green tinged, Oxblood and Slate Blue, with flecks of Green Aventurine.”

For the name of a marble to make sense it need to have a common and reasonable connection to the name, this is why Superman, Spiderman, Bumble Bee, Baseball, Flaming Dragon, Liberty, and the many others have stayed in the collector’s groups as names with instant recognition.  CAC and MFC both made Bricks, but the common thread is the recognizable name because it matches the marbles distinctive.

More History and My Passion

This is a long article, and it goes through my history as a collector in limited detail above and more follows.  There is a reason for that, if you’re interested please keep reading.  It will let you know where I am coming from and why.

I had my introduction to the marble collecting field in 2000, when I began researching collectibles on the internet, and specifically eBay.  At the time eBay was primarily a collector’s market place and though I was looking at model kits and other like items from my childhood, I stumbled upon marbles as one of the categories.

That first year I was buying large lots of marbles on eBay for relatively few dollars and joined a few forums and struck up an online and email friendship with Alan Bassinet, now deceased,  (MarbleAlan http://www.marblealan.com/ (now hosted at buymarbles.com)) and began learning about marbles and their history.  This I learned was a lifelong educational process, which involved many aspects and at the time books were relatively few and the internet was growing.

Within a few years I had progressed from a novice to enthusiast, and was considered the local expert on the subject of Modern Machine Made from the early 20’s to the present.  This was largely due to my participation in online forums and Marble Alan’s growing site and our friendship.  I would send him high quality images and he would ID marbles I was unsure about.

But as the market on eBay grew the large lots and purchases dried up, I attribute this to one particular auction which involved a Cheese Cask found in an old barn as part of an estate purchase, and literally hundreds, maybe thousands of the highest quality vintage marbles from all kinds of makers along with German handmades ever seen on eBay up to that time.  The seller had done two sets of pictures, at the request of buyers, which showed marbles then worth at least $100,000 dollars easy.  This auction went for over $5K or $10K, the actual number escapes me.  I recall speaking to Alan about it, we were like, “man wish I had the money to buy them.”  It was after that auction things changed.

This is significant, because in those years leading up to 2000, there were thousands of collectors, and dozens of groups and clubs.  Knowledge was passed word of mouth and literally “in hand.” Joe and Jane would meet with the club share the marbles they had found, and the marbles would be handed around, viewed and handled.  The story of location, maker, specific factory, year of manufacturer, all of it was a word of mouth process from the 1940’s through to the early 1990’s.  Personally I believe this is still the best possible education you can have, and if your blessed enough to live in an area where there are active clubs and people living life and loving it through this simple hobby, then you need to take advantage of it.  There is no better education than in hand examination, face to face communication, meetings, shows, festivals and clubs.

After the Cheese Cask auction eBay changed where marbles were concerned, and has continued to do so.  The attic, estate, basement and other large group finds started drying up.  In their place were lots of smaller groups by lots of folks and competition for these groups would vary.  A seller who knew nothing about the marbles they had, would throw up 20-30 pieces and one could be a killer Akro Popeye, or Peltier Golden Rebel, or Superman and that one would bring $150+, and the next 5 they had would bring $5.  Some of us would share knowledge, but in these years, Marble Alan again became a very wise seller, taking excellent pictures, updating his cameras occasionally and selling known marbles by name and bringing big bucks; He parlayed this into a consignment business, which at times had him so busy, he could not keep up.  Check out this article where he was interviewed in 2009 and recounts some of this history himself: http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/an-interview-with-antique-marble-collector-alan-basinet/ (highly recommend you read this he addresses the history of naming in it.)

Being a West Coaster, there were relatively few finds locally to be had, and so my days of buying and selling on eBay tapered off.  Being a full time father, worker, reader, movie lover, and church goer, my time on eBay was spent with occasional finds and the selling off of personal collectables in the pursuit of photography and digital photography equipment in particular (another way things changed).

Photography

I think this is well worth mentioning.  Photography in 2000 was a proposition which was expensive for most, digital cameras which were available, where only getting to the point where the ability to take high quality images for eBay and online for groups and forums was becoming more prominent.  I spent a lot of my sales money on purchasing new equipment and increasing my skill and refining my techniques.

As you can see today, it much easier to take photos and share them, and the posting of marble images had become much easier as well.  I often receive complements on my photography of marbles but I love doing it, that is why I continue to do so.  I continue to archive all my images and hope to one day produce a resource which will add long term to the marble collecting passion which keeps us young at heart and passionate about sharing, talking, photographing and learning about marble collecting.

As for naming marbles, if you played with marbles as a kid this process was instinctive.  Just like making up the rules as we played was.  I never played Ringer, but some variation of keepers over the distance of 10 square yards, through tree roots, grass, dirt and whatever else was around.  It was fun!  I name marbles for the same reason.  It’s fun.  Thanks for reading

Matthew (BIBLEfreak) Davis

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