Cherry Wood Chinese Checkers Boards Made in USA
I have finally found a source for affordable, high quality wooden Chinese checkers boards to display my marbles on. They are made of cherry wood in Vermont by Maple Landmark, Inc.
They make two different boards. The two-person board, pictured on the right holding some of my Peltier marbles, has 81 holes and is 12" long by 7 ½ wide and ¾ deep. It weighs 1 lb 1oz and comes with 20 marbles.
Their standard board (left) has 121 holes and is 11.5" wide and ¾" deep. It weighs 2 lbs 3 oz and comes with 60 marbles.
The finish, while not as dark as I would prefer, is smooth and natural. The lacquer allows the seated marbles to spin easily so you can show their best face.
The spacing and depth of the holes are are designed for 5/8" marbles. You might squeeze a couple of larger ones in but even the 5/8" ones can be a bit tricky to pick out. Be careful to avoid bumps when moving them on the board!
I bought the two-person board for only $19 + S&H from Green Goods, which has the lowest price I could find. They also sell the larger standard board for just $28 + S&H.
No Comments »Original Boxes of German Handmade Marbles
Once again Morphy's Auction offers an opportunity to both drool over and bid on some rare marble items. This time in their February 2010 online catalog they have an assortment of original German handmade marbles boxes, including a salesman's sample case.
It's a wonder these antique marbles survived, much less their boxes! Now I can really imagine what the children of the late 19th/early 20th century saw when they peeked over the counter at the boxes of marbles.
No Comments »Dirty Jobs Marbles Episode Creating JABO Eagles
Dirty Jobs finally aired the marbles episode on December 8th. It was originally filmed in November 2008 at the JABO factory.
Mike Rowe helped the crew create a very vibrant run of marbles called "Eagles". They are loaded with aventurine and have been for sale on eBay since 2008, though I expect the value will increase now that the show has aired. Right now it looks like you can still grab some for around $5 each.
If you missed this fantastic little bit of marble history, keep an eye out for a repeat on Tuesday, December 15th. Here is a sneak peak from the show:
Tis the Season for Marbles
Toy marbles have been given at Christmas for generations. They make great stocking stuffers and would make a special gift for the child or grandchild who might not have had a chance to appreciate the beauty and fun of glass marbles.
Few toy stores carry good marbles anymore so you'll have to either use eBay to scout out some lots of marbles or head over to Land of Marbles and pick up some color Mega Marble Nets or a large lot of colorful Marble Assortments.
Santa probably won't be getting me any marbles for Christmas. Not because I've been bad, but because I'm being good and trying to save up for when the next marble show comes to town.
It sure hasn't been easy.
Maybe I can buy my daughter a big mixed lot of marbles. I'll just pick out the vintage marbles to take care of them until she's old enough to appreciate antiques...
No Comments »Buy American Marbles
When American inventor Martin F. Christensen created the world's first glass sphere-making machine in the early 1900s, he faced stiff competition from overseas. Germany had long dominated the world's toy marble market with their handmade glass, crockery and agate marbles.
Martin's toughest challenge was not found in making a better product. American children adored the new fantastically round and smooth "glassies" he had so ingeniously created. Rather, like so many American manufacturers before and after him, his challenge was labor cost.
To illustrate the problem, in 1913, Horace Hill of M.F. Christensen & Son Co. reported to congress that his company's labor cost for one adult male was "$4 per day of 8 hours, $24 per week." In Germany, on the other hand, a day-shift adult male marble maker was paid "$4.76 to...$7.14 per week by the job of 12 hours per day."
How could they competitively sell toy marbles when the Germans could make them at a fraction of the cost?
The answer was simple: They could not compete. They could only appeal to the government to level the playing field by increasing the tariff, the duty tax on the imported products. And that's just what Martin F. Christensen himself did at tariff hearings before the Committee on Ways and Means.
In 1909 he made the following appeal, which reads in part:
Gentlemen: We respectfully submit our views in the matter of manufacturing glass marbles and caster balls.
In October, 1904, we started a small factory here in Akron, Ohio, for the exclusive purpose of manufacturing this product. From that time on we have labored along, but to great disadvantage with our foreign competitors, it being possible to put imported glass marbles on our American market; for example, No. 0 imported glass marbles are offered to the trade in this country at $1.57 per thousand against our No. 0 glass marbles, with an actual cost of manufacturing here of $2.80 per thousand. The principal element in our problem being labor, at which we labor to great disadvantage with our foreign competitors in the price we are compelled to pay for it; we have, however, maintained our unequal struggle with manufacturers from abroad in such a way as to keep our industry alive, but scarcely more; we are, however, capable of survival of almost indefinite extension if, during the crucial period the principle of giving adequate protection to our industry during the time it is actually needed it applies to our case. We feel that this industry is one which fulfills all the conditions required for the free and generous application of the protective principle; it is literally an infant industry; the protection which it absolutely requires is a protection against foreign poorly paid hand labor, and in favor of domestic high class skilled labor.
The M.F. Christensen & Son Co. survived for several more years until World War One. German imports were banned at the war's outbreak. Later in 1918, Martin F. Christensen's son, Charles, decided to retire and sold the company's remaining stock to the Akro Agate Company.
The "infant" American machine made marble industry thrived another 10 or so years, then struggled through the Great Depression and World War II. But America was changing. Plastic and television had been invented and the demand for toy marbles waned while the labor and material costs to manufacture them rose.
Despite this, in defiance of the odds, there are still two American toy marble manufacturers in operation today: Marble King and Jabo, Inc. That, to me, is something of a miracle in today's global economy. No doubt they too struggle against cheap foreign labor, high material costs, and the facts of a changing society.
These companies represent the legacy of M.F. Christensen, his invention and the struggles he faced to make and sell those wonderful little glass spheres we adore.
In honor of that history, I'm going to buy some new American machine made marbles while I still can.
