Other American Companies

Master Marble/Master Glass Company (Clarksburg WV: Master Marble1931-1941, Master Glass 1941-1948):

The Master Marble Company was founded in 1930 by four former employees of the Akro Agate Company. The company closed in 1941 and the machinery was purchased by one of the former owners who formed The Master Glass Company. Master Glass closed in 1973. The Master Marble Company used machinery which was similar to Akro Agate’s, but most notably, did not include the Freese improvement which offset the rollers. This means that Master marbles have a crimp or feathering mark at either pole. Also, due to the design of the machinery, Master marbles have a unique pattern at either end. At either end you can see a small 'V' of the color on one side of the marble indenting into the color on the other side.

The most collectible Master marble is the Sunburst, and a related marble called the Tiger-Eye. Master Marble also made some patch marbles that are collectible. These patches were marketed under a variety of names, including Meteor  (wispy translucent patch on opaque base), Comet (opaque patch on opaque base) and Cloudy  (translucent patch on translucent base). The Master Marble patches are identifiable by a 'V' or 'U' pattern and feathering seen at each pole. The patches were made in a variety of patterns, including two-color opaque, two-color translucent, and opaque with a second color brushed on. Master Marbles’ colors are fairly unique, although generally duller than Akro’s.

Master Marble and Master Glass made a variety of clearies, opaques, and cat’s-eyes (Master Glass only). Master clearies and opaques all have the typical 'V' or 'U' pattern at either end. Master cat’s-eyes are typically single color translucent three vane variety in transparent clear glass.

Alley Agate Company (various West Virginia locations, 1929-1949):

Lawrence Alley operated factories in at least four different locations in West Virginia (Paden City, Sisterville, Pennsboro, and St. Mary’s) between 1929 and 1949. He also may have operated a plant in Salem, West Virginia. In 1949, he sold the St. Mary’s plant to Berry Pink and Sellers Peltier, and they changed the company name to Marble King.

Alley produced a large variety of two and three color swirls, as well as one color opaques and clearies. It is known that Alley produced marbles using a metallic color, as well as an oxblood.

Marble King, Inc. (St. Mary's WV 1949-1958, Paden City WV 1958-present):

Marble King was started in 1949 by Berry Pink and Sellers Peltier in St. Mary’s, West Virginia. It was moved to Paden City, West Virginia, in 1958 after a fire destroyed the original plant. The machinery was purchased from the Alley Glass Company. Berry Pink had also been jobbing marbles since the 1920s under the trade name 'Berry Pink, Inc.'

Marble King produced ribboned, patch & ribboned, cat’s-eye, and swirl marbles. Patch & ribbon marbles have a patch on one pole, a ribbon of a second color encircling the marble, a ribbon of the same color as the top patch encircling the marble and finally a patch of the second color on the bottom pole. The marbles have two seams. They are made using a veneering method which puts a thin layer of the colored glass on a base of white glass. These marbles were marketed under the name 'Rainbows.' The most common Rainbow is white alternating with another color. The second color is usually red, blue, brown or green. There are multicolor Rainbows that are white with a color ribbon and patch consisting of two or three different colors.  The most collectible Rainbows are two different alternating colors (not white). These have descriptive names that have been given to them by collectors including Bumblebee, Wasp, Cub Scout, Girl Scout, Tiger, Spiderman, Green Hornet, Watermelon, Dragonfly. Another collectible Marble King marble is the Rainbow Red. This is a white base marble with an equatorial ribbon of red and a second equatorial ribbon of a different color, rather than a patch.

There are several types of new marbles being produced, or that have been recently produced, that are very similar to vintage Rainbows in terms of color and pattern. These include Rainbow-looking marbles that have a translucent base, Rainbow-looking marbles that are missing the patch but have the equatorial ribbon, and Rainbow-looking marbles where the two colors are blended together in thin strands or bands.

Ravenswood Novelty Works (Ravenswood WV, 1931-1959):

The Ravenswood Novelty Company began operations during 1931 or 1932, under the guidance of John Turnbull. Operations ended around 1954 or 1955, although the company is reported to have been making industrial marbles through 1959. During the late 1950s, Ravenswood was a major supplier of marbles to Krylon Paint for their aerosol cans. It is believed that they purchased these marbles from Vitro Agate Company. The company made transparent and opaque swirls. There is also strong evidence to suggest that they made the 1' Buddy marbles and did not buy them from Master Glass, as had been previously believed.

Vitro Agate Company (Clarksburg WV: Vitro Agate Company 1948-1979, Gladding Vitro Agate Company 1979-1989. Anacortes WA: Vitro Agate Company 1989-1995. Reno OH: Jabo Vitro Agate Company 1995-present):

The Vitro Agate Company began operations in 1932 in Parkersburg, West Virginia. It was acquired in 1969 by The Gladding Corporation, which changed the name to Gladding-Vitro Agate Company. In 1982, Gladding-Vitro was purchased by Paris Manufacturing Company, which changed the name back to Vitro Agate. In 1987, it was purchased by Viking Rope Company which retained the name, but moved the company to Anacortes, Washington. The company ceased operations in 1993 and the machinery and name were purchased by JABO, Inc. sometime after that. It then became JABO-Vitro Agate Company.

Early Vitro Agate marbles are the brushed variety. This is the type that has a thin layer of colored glass brushed on a base color. There are also a few veneered varieties, but these manufactured later on.

More recently, Vitro Agate also made some two-seam marbles that are similar to Marble King Rainbows. They are readily identifiable because the marbles always have a defined crimp design at the seam between the two halves. Marble King’s marbles do not have this crimp. Vitro also produced a number of two seam multicolor patch marbles. Many of these have clear and wispy white as one of the colors. When viewed ninety degrees from the seam, many have a stylized 'V' pattern to them.

A Victory is a transparent clear base with an opaque color patch brushed on about a quarter of the surface. The patch is purple, green, yellow, blue or red. The Conqueror is more common than the Victory. It is a transparent clear base with the same type of patch as the Victory. However, the remainder of the marble is brushed with opaque white. There are two other marbles, similar to a Conqueror. One looks just like a Conqueror, but most of the interior of the marble is filled with translucent white filaments (occasionally the marble is opalescent). These are often referred to as 'phantom conquerors'. They are much more common than the Conqueror. The other type is very similar to a Conqueror, but has a brushed white that is more off-white than a Conqueror and a colored patch that is not as bright.

Another type of Vitro Agate that has recently become collectible were marketed as Blackies and Whities. A slightly more recent Vitro-Agate are the All-Reds (#328, #329). All-Reds come in two varieties. The older variety is an opaque white base with a red patch on one pole and a different color on the other. There is a black line encircling the red patch. The other type of All-Red, which is newer, has a red patch on one pole and a color patch on the other. There is no black line on this one.

Vitro Agate also produced another type of brushed opaque marble called the Parrot. Vitro Parrots, as well as other Vitro swirls sometimes have a 'V' pattern in the glass. This was intentional.

Vitro Agate made a variety of other transparent and opaque marbles, as well as cat’s-eyes. The Vitro Agate tri-color patch  is a transparent clear base marble with four different colored patches brushed on the surface. Vitro Agate cat’s-eyes are either a four or five wavy vane type. Gladding-Vitro cat’s-eyes are a five to eight strand cage style. There are some Vitro Agate vane-style cat’s-eyes that have two or more colors on each vane. These are referred to as hybrids, although they seem to be too common to have been an accident.

Champion Agate Company (Pennsboro WV, 1938-present):

The Champion Agate Company began operations in Pennsboro, West Virginia, in 1938. They are still producing marbles. The company only produced swirls. In the early 1980s the company produced a series of marbles that are similar to two-color and three-color swirls produced during the 1930s. These marbles are referred to as New Old-Fashioned. They are often mistaken for older swirls. You can tell the difference, because they have a very shiny or oily surface to them.

The Alox Manufacturing Company began operations in the early 1920s in St. Louis, Missouri. The company produced opaque marbles, two-color swirls and a transparent swirl.

Heaton Agate Company/C. E. Bogard & Sons/The Bogard Company/JABO, Inc./JABO-Vitro Agate Inc. (Various West Virginia locations, 1946 to present):

The Heaton Agate Company began operations in 1946 or 1947 in Pennsboro, West Virginia. It was originally run by Bill Heaton and Oris Hanlon. Hanlon left the company in 1947 to found the Cairo Novelty Company. Until the early 1960s, the company produced a variety of opaque swirls and transparent swirls, as well as cat’s-eyes and game marbles. During the 1960s, production of swirls ceased and the company restricted itself to producing cat’s-eyes and industrial marbles.

C. E. Bogard bought the Heaton Agate Company in 1971 and renamed it the C. E. Bogard & Sons Company. In 1983 the company name was changed to The Bogard Company by Clayton Bogard’s son, Jack. Bogard produced a variety of cat’s-eyes, clearies and opaques. According to Jack Bogard, the company also produced an experimental marble (transparent clear base with interior green wisps) that can be found in the Mountaineer blister packs that the company marketed. None of Bogard’s marbles have much value if they are not in their original packaging.

JABO, Inc., was organized in 1987 by Jack Bogard, Dave McCullough (who had spent many years at Champion Agate) and Joanne Argabrite. The machinery was moved to Reno, Ohio. The company produced industrial marbles, mainly opaques. However, Dave McCullough would produce three or four limited runs each year of Classics in sizes from 5/8' to 1'. Each run was different from any previous run, and the marbles were not like any other company’s. Many fluoresce. They contain many innovative colors and were produced in very short runs.

In early 1996, JABO, Inc. bought Vitro Agate Company, moving the Vitro machinery from Anacortes, Washington, to the Reno, Ohio, location. The JABO, Inc. was reorganized as JABO-Vitro Agate Company. The company now produces a wide variety of swirl marbles.

Cairo Novelty Company (Cairo WV, circa 1948-1953):

The Cairo Novelty Company began operations in 1948 in Cairo, West Virginia. With the financial backing of two local merchants (John Sandy and Dennis Farley), it had been formed late in the prior year by Oris Hanlon, who had left Heaton Agate Company. The company had only one marble machine, but a design innovation by Hanlon (which is patented) allowed it to produce marbles at a fifty percent faster rate than any other machine at the time. The company produced a wide variety of swirls from peewee size to 3/4'. Many of these marbles fluoresce. A flash flood in 1950 seriously curtailed operations, but Cairo was able to produce marbles until 1953. More research needs to be done in order to identify the marbles that were specifically made by this plant.

Other Machine Made Marbles

There are a number of other machine-made marbles that you may run into during your searches.

Marbles with metallic stripes have been made by several manufacturers, including Alley Agate and Champion Agate. Usually, they have a silvery stripe on the colored swirl of a common swirl marble. Occasionally, you will find a silver stripe on a clearie or a copper colored stripe on a swirl. Marbles with aventurine in them have become popular recently. The aventurine is actually finely ground metal flecks mixed in with the glass. Aventurine is sometimes found in the black ribbons and patches on Peltier National Line Rainbos and Peerless Patches. It has also been found in common swirls with green swirls on white. It is not known who made these. Aventurine has also been found in some Vitro Agate ribboned marbles. Also, some Vitro Agate four-vane cat’s-eyes have been found with aventurine in them. The vanes are usually green and these usually have a lot of 'fire' in them. Also, on occasion, Marble King Rainbos will contain some large aventurine flakes. A 5/8' Marble King Watermelon with aventurine flakes was sold in a Block’s Box absentee auction for $1,050 in early 1997.

There are literally millions of machine-made marbles in existence. It has been reported that some companies were able to produce several boxcar loads of marbles a day. Most of these were game marbles (opaques), cat’s-eyes, swirls and patches.

Almost every machine-made marble produced after 1950 has little or no value to collectors. There are two reasons for this. First, they were produced in such quantity, that there is an abundant supply of Mint examples. Second, the colors are dull and the patterns are non-descript, so they have no eye appeal.

The lack of color and pattern is not an accident. As the toy marble market matured, it was imperative for a manufacturer to cut costs as low as possible in order to compete. The way to do this was to eliminate the expensive materials that it took to produce bright colors and eliminate the inefficient machinery that it took to produce interesting patterns.

Over ninety percent of the machine-made marbles that you run across will not match any of the marbles described above. This does not mean that they are not collectible. There is an almost endless variation of colors and design. Some collectors enjoy putting together collections of these marbles in odd colors and designs, specifically because they are shunned by the majority of collectors. The lack of demand means that this remainder or bulk tends to be valued at a penny to five or ten cents apiece.