In a Cats Eye

 

QUESTION: As a kid, I played marbles with my buddies. I started playing with marbles when I was in third grade and by the fifth grade, I was our school’s marble champion. At the time, I liked the way the marbles looked but knew nothing about how they were made. I’ve seen some old marbles online and would like to start a collection. What advice can you give me?

ANSWER: Marbles are a good item to collect because of their size. But don’t let their small size fool you. Some of the older handmade marbles can go as high as $700 for a 2½-inch end-of-day one. 

For those who have never played marbles, the goal of each shot is to hit one of the marbles in the center and knock it out of the circle. If the player knocks a marble out, then they get to keep the marble for the rest of the game, they also get to take another turn. If the first player doesn’t knock a marble out of the circle, the next player then gets a turn.

Aggies, cats eyes, popeyes, red devils, pearls, turtles, bumblebees—these were all nicknames for marbles. A cat's eye marble, for instance, had central eye-shaped colored inserts or cores injected inside the marble. A devil's eye was red with yellow eye.

Many marble players grew up to be marble collectors. Many treasure the handmade glass marbles produced in Germany between 1865 and 1910. These represented a golden age of marbles---a time when artisans made them one at a time.

Although glass marbles date from Roman times, the invention of the marble scissors in 1846 advanced the technique considerably. An unknown glass-worker in Lausche, a town in the porcelain-making province of Thruingen, Germany, forged a pair of tongs with a cup on one end and a knife blade on the other. He attached the cup with a screw which could be made larger or smaller depending an the size of the marble needed. This invention made it possible to produce round glass marbles in quantity.

For years, collectors have referred to the scar or break mark left by the marble scissors as a "pontil mark.”' However, this isn’t correct. Glassmakers used a pontil rod for making blown glass, not marbles. Depending on the production technique, all antique handmade glass marbles have either one or two pontil marks.

German glass marbles came in a dazzling array of colors, types, and sizes in two large and distinguishable categories—antique cane-cut and individually made. Despite their differences, glassmakers cut marbles in each category with marble scissors.

Antique Cane-Cut Marbles
“Glass cane” has at least two meanings. It refers both to thin, individual threads of transparent opaque or colored glass and to the glass rod produced when combining threads. The Germans performed a similar creative transformation when they produced marbles from glass cane. The result was the "German Swirl."

When the core or cooler portion of a marble was an open network of opaque or colored glass threads, collectors refer to it as a glass latticinio core The number of threads in the delicate interior lattice varied vary from 8 to 40. Cores in red, blue or green are rare today. Close to the surface of the marble and distinct from the core were additional ribbons and swirls of complementary or contrasting colored glass. More than half the German Swirls had latticinio cores.

Solid cores looked like a column of tightly packed and consecutive colored glass threads. There was no clear glass at the core. The core, itself, was a solid color or colors. Divided and ribbon core marbles were subtly different. Most antique divided core swirls resembled a DNA molecule, but with three strands instead of two. Clear glass separated or divided the strands of color. In contrast, ribbon cores had only one or two somewhat wider divisions. Ribbon cores took considerable skill to produce and were rare compared to divided cores. 

Artisans created some German Swirls around a ball of colored glass. The swirl markings had to be bright and near or on the surface in order to be seen. A variation on this theme was the use of opaque glass as the core. Confusion results when the same style name is applied to marbles in both of these categories.  For example, clambroths, gooseberries, and Indians were names given to certain types of colored and opaque glass marbles. Glassmakers usually made the clambroth and gooseberry marbles with two subdued, delicate colors—one color forming the background and the other gently curving around the surface of the marble. Indians were typically black with bright contrasting rainbow colors close to the surface.

Individually Made Marbles 
Although artisans handmade cane-cut marbles, they didn’t make them individually. The marbles cut from the same, elongated, glass cane would certainly share some of the same color, style and core features. But each was not completely one of a kind. Individually made marbles were all unique creations.

Before they left work for the day, glassmakers often fashioned marbles from scraps and chips of canes left behind at the end of production. These marbles were usually large—at least one inch in diameter—then gave them to children in the neighborhood on their way home. "End-of-day" marbles belong to one of the rarest and most sentimental marble categories with prices ranging from $125 for a 1-inch to between $500 and $700 for a 2½  inch. These marbles have a single pontil mark, rather large spots and what looks like a balloon floating just below the marble's surface.

The golden age of German handmade glass marbles began to close as Germany entered World War I. Men and machinery used to produce toys were pressed into service for the war effort. Following the war and up until 1926, American toy catalogs continued to carry "imported glass" German marbles-Production most likely didn’t continue after 1910 primarily because of the perfect symmetry, availability, brilliance and competition of machine made marbles.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about "The Sparkling World of Glass" in the 2021 Winter Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

A Memento of Antarctic Exploration

 

QUESTION: I’m a watch repair person. Recently, a rather unique 24-hour watch came across my counter for a new band. I’ve never seen one like it before and wandered if you could tell me more about it. The dial has what looks like a map of Antarctica on it and all the lettering seems to be in the Russian Cyrillic alphabet. Also, the dial has some writing in red on it.

ANSWER: What you have is what’s known as Russian Raketa Polar Watch.  They’re often described as Raketa watches.

The Petrodvorets Watch Factory, the one that produces Raketa watches, is the oldest in Russia, founded by Peter the Great in 1721. The Nazis destroyed it during the Siege of Leningrad, but the Soviets rebuilt it in 1944. Since 1961, the factory has been producing watches under the brand “Raketa,” meaning “rocket,” in honor of Yuri Gagarin, Russia’s first astronaut and the first person in Space. 

Today, the Petrodvorets Watch Factory, still located in its historic building, is one of the rare watch factories in the world that makes its own movements, including the hair spring, balance wheel, and escapement. In 2009, the company modernized its production with equipment purchased from the Swatch Group in Switzerland.

Often these watches don’t look like Petrodvorets produced them. However, they were often assembled from Raketa parts—probably everything except the dial. Most of the online auction listings say they were "handmade" in Russia. And, for the most part, that’s true. But being part of "Old stock" refers more to the parts than to the complete watch. 

In the 1950s and 1960s, it was common for smaller workshops to produce these watches using Raketa parts. Different Polar, Arctic, and Antarctic models originated from this time. These “fakes” were essentially assembled from whatever parts the makers could find. Supposedly Petrodvorets’ workers during the Soviet Era would produce Raketa watches with modified dials on their own after hours. This continued until 2009, when new owners took over the company.

The majority of Raketa watches were actually produced in the original Petrodvorets factory by original Raketa masters using original Raketa parts. What they modified, if needed, was the dial. These Raketa masters had the tools and knowledge to produce special dial watches.

This watch is one of those special dial watches. It commemorates the first Soviet research  expedition to Antarctica in 1956. But must have been produced after the fact since Yuri Gagarin didn’t go into space until April 12, 1961, if in fact it is a Raketa watch. 

Russian explorers Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev, sailing on the ships Vostok and Mirny, first sighted a continental ice shelf in Antarctica in 1820. The continent, however, remained largely neglected for the rest of the 19th century because of its hostile environment, lack of resources, and isolation.

The first Soviet contact with Antarctica came in January 1947 when the Slava whaling flotilla began whaling in Antarctic waters. But it wasn’t until The Soviet Antarctic Expedition, or Sovyetskaya Antarkticheskaya Ekspeditziya, part of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute of the Soviet Committee on Antarctic Research of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, that the Russians explored the interior of the continent to the South Pole. 

The Soviets established their first Antarctic research station, Mirny, near the coast on February 13, 1956. In December 1957, they built another station, Vostok, inland near the south geomagnetic pole. The Fourth Soviet Antarctic Expedition used three large tractors and four sledges on the journey from Vostok to the South Pole, and it’s this expedition that this watch commemorates. The words in red on the dial state “The Soviet Antarctic Expedition,” or “Sovyetskaya Antarkticheskaya Ekspeditziya” in Russian.

In 1959, twelve countries signed the Antarctic Treaty, prohibiting military activities and mineral mining, prohibits nuclear explosions and nuclear waste disposal, supports scientific research, and protects the continent's ecozone. As of today, forty-nine nations have signed the treaty. More than 4,000 scientists from many nations now conduct ongoing experiments in Antarctic life and climate change.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about "The Sparkling World of Glass" in the 2021 Winter Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

Happy Birthday, President Lincoln

 

QUESTION: I’ve been collecting postcards for years. Recently, while searching eBay for cards to add to my collection, I came across a unique card depicting Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. I’ve never really pursued cards from particular presidents and would love to know more about this card and perhaps others. What can you tell me about it?

ANSWER: The New York City postcard publishing firm of E. Nash published a series of cards issued for Lincoln's Centennial celebration in 1909, of which this one was a part. The six-postcard “Lincoln Birthday Series” was specifically intended as a “Lincoln Centennial Souvenir.” A pattern of stars and stripes form the background of each card, the American flag and eagle figure prominently, and each includes a portrait of President Lincoln and a quotation from or text about him. Four of the postcards depict Lincoln the rail splitter, Lincoln the Great Emancipator, Lincoln at Gettysburg, and Lincoln delivering his Second Inaugural Address. The final two postcards in the series focus on Lincoln’s character.  He was “a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief,” as illustrated by his letter to Mrs. Bixby. And he was a man whose “zeal and personal worth” allowed him to rise from his “humble origins” to the “highest pinnacle of fame…as the Champion of Liberty.”

E. Nash Postcard Set (above and below)

Avid postcard collectors seek anything concerning Lincoln and bearing his name, even local view cards. Topics range from Lincoln Park in Chicago to a view of Lincoln Drive in Philadelphia's Fairmount Park, and even include hotels bearing the famous Lincoln name.

Lincoln Portrait

Less than two generations after his death, Abraham Lincoln emerged as one of America's most heroic legends. As the turn of the 20th century dawned, Americans were caught up in the fad of picture postcard ex-changing and saving. So, it is not surprising to discover how fond the public was of cards honoring the 16th president. Indeed, Lincoln's Birthday became a national holiday, and sending patriotic greeting postcards on the day was an enduring custom for many years.

Along with Uncle Sam, Santa Claus and George Washington, Abraham Lincoln's image and life soon dominated American postcard publishing. Old cards of Lincoln help us to understand just a little bit about the optimism and joy people felt back then. It was a time when Americans, under President Teddy Roosevelt and William H. Taft, felt a surging patriotism and veneration for our country and its past. There was a feeling of security in the present and an anticipation of the future.

Typical Lincoln Birthday Card

People avidly saved and exchanged Lincoln postcards. Parents and teachers also used them  as educational tools to inspire and motivate young people. To meet this demand dozens of publishers produced numerous designs of Lincoln's Birthday greetings and memorial souvenirs. During the first two decades of the 20th century many embossed and imaginatively conceived postcards were published. Most were artist illustrations, but a few displayed old photographs of Lincoln. Lincoln's Birthday cards offered a perfect blend of patriotism with the historical and holiday greeting style.

The best effort may well be International Art Company's series number 51651 of six cards, which was illustrated by artist C. Chapman. Considered by many collectors as among the finest Lincoln cards, these went through several distinguishable printings.

The London-based company of Raphael Tuck Si Sons printed and exported into this country, a six card set. While attractive, it does not fully measure up to Tuck's usual standard. The series showed vignettes from Lincoln's life, as well as his birthplace and statue. For the serious collector one version of this set came glazed. 

MW Taggart of New York City sold a 11-card set featuring scenes not commonly available elsewhere. These included The Lincoln Family Group," "Lincoln and Douglas Debate in 1858," and "Abraham Lincoln Entering Richmond:" A unique touch was added by the inclusion of the assassination scene at Ford's Theater.

Lincoln Postcard Set by Paul Finkenrath

Other publishers of cards for Lincoln's birthday were Paul Finkenrath of Berlin, easily identified by their "PFB" logo found on the address side; M.T. Sheahan, which printed 20 different designs on thick stock; P. Sanders, whose two sets, number 415 and number 416, are excellent and engrossing; and Julius Bien, producer of three singles.

Lincoln Postcard for Minnesota Prairie

In 1909, the centennial year of Lincoln's birth, proved beneficial to postcard publishers, who cashed in on the public's devotion to the slain president. It was also celebrated by a pair of special postcards sets, both of which undoubtedly were sold as packaged, complete sets throughout America in the hundreds of postcard shops that dotted the landscape.

E. Nash Company published one of the centennial sets, as stated above. The other set, by Fred C. Lounsbury, had four cards, all of which featured an imitation silver and bronze medallion of Lincoln. Scenes pictured included Lincoln's Kentucky birthplace, young Lincoln splitting rails, and the president delivering the Gettysburg Address. Lounsbury also issued these as plain-back souvenirs.

Lincoln Postcard Set by Fred Lounsbury

However, many companies produced Lincoln patriotic postcards. Among them were Majestic, Oldroyd and Century. Those by Century are particularly interesting because they used some of Matthew Brady's photos.

Postcard Showing Lincoln's Funeral Train

In 1909 a photograph of Lincoln's funeral train, long lost and forgotten in the home of the Lamson family of Toledo, Ohio, was discovered and used for a postcard design. As a promotional for the Lamson Brothers Department Store, it was handed out to Union veterans attending the 42nd National Encampment of the G.A.R. in Toledo that year.

There are so many Lincoln postcards on the market—over 7,000 have been identified from 1,000 publishers— that its impossible to collect them all.  Currently, prices range from a couple of dollars each to about $10, making the postcards one of the best Lincoln memorabilia bargains around.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about "Celebrating an Olde Fashioned Holiday" in the 2020 Holiday Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.