The Sea Glass Shard of the Month: December 2014
A Large, Shooter Sea Glass Marble
Sea Glass Specifications:
Marble Type: Shooter
Marble Style: Cat's Eye
Max Diameter: 22.4 mm (0.88")
Weight: 17.3 grams (0.61 oz)
Estimated Age: No earlier than the 1950s
The object of this month's sea glass feature is a large, glass shooter marble found along the shores of Puerto Rico. A shooter marble is larger than the more common sized marbles found in the surf. In one popular game of marbles the shooter was shot into a circle containing the smaller, target marbles in an attempt to knock them out of the circle. The one shooting would keep any marbles they had successfully knocked out.
Sea glass marbles are not as common as other types of glass refuse found along the beach. They were highly prized and collected by the young-at-heart who played the game and thus not easily given up. This makes finding an ocean-worn marble a rare treat for the collector.
A closer look at this sea glass marble reveals the all-around random pitting resulting from spending years in the ocean surf.
"Marbles come in a huge array of styles including the onionskin, cleary, lutz along with the more common cat's eye..."
Toy marbles are often refered to by their size which can range from the smaller than common peewees through the larger sized grandfathers which could be as large as a tennis ball. Art glass marbles, used for display purposes, could be over 12 inches in diameter[1].
Types of marbles highly valued by the sea glass enthusiast are the less common varieties like the larger sized shooters and boulders, as well as the older hand-made types like the German onionskins.
Marbles come in a huge array of styles including the onionskin, cleary and lutz along with the more common cat's eye design like the featured marble in this story. This style had colored glass injected into the cores of the clear glass marble. The result was what appeared to resemble a cat's eye. The first true cat's eye marbles were produced in the 1930's by the Peltier Glass Company[2].
After 1945, the market was flooded by inexpensive, foreign-made cat's eyes which is probably the main reason that most sea glass marbles found these days are of the cat's eye variety.
Marbles found at the beach are generally found in their original round shape. Sometimes though, you can find broken marbles that have been worn to a cabochon or fat button shape. These worn marbles will then often have an uniqueness to them as the inner colored glass is exposed to create wonderful surface designs.
Sea glass marbles found in the surf can originate from coastal dumps or from a river running through a village, where refuse was often emptied, which eventually found its way to the ocean. Some marbles may also have been lost by a young gamer during a day spent at the beach. Whatever the reason, they will be some of the most highly valued sea glass finds an enthusiat will have in his or her collection.
REFERENCES:
1. www.wikipedia.org
2. www.inkspotantiques.com
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