Ustoysandgames’s Blog

History of marbles September 17, 2009

Marble HISTORY! Marbles are small, hard balls made from clay, stone, wood, glass, steel or any other suitable material. They have been made for thousands of years and games with marbles are popular in countries around the world.

DEVELOPMENT AND HISTORY The earliest marbles were made of flint and stone and baked clay. Examples have been found in archaeological sites around the world and some of these, from Rome and ancient Egypt, can be found at the British Museum.

There are frequent references to marbles in Roman literature and it is probably fair to assume that the Romans took this popular form of entertainment with them to all parts of their empire.

For centuries thereafter the marbles were made of common stone or in some cases, real marble. China and crockery marbles were introduced around the year 1800 and before that glass marbles had been made in Venice. However, it was only when a German glassblower invented a tool called the marble scissors in 1846 that production became quick enough to make the sale of glass marbles to the public an economic proposition. These marbles became increasingly popular throughout Europe and America. An enormous variety of colors were used and intricate patterns were created within the glass.

Clay marbles began to be produced in bulk from about 1870 onwards on both sides of the Atlantic. In the 1890′s the first machines for the manufacture of glass marbles were, introduced. However, machine production remained low until the 1914-18 war in Europe cut off supplies of marbles to North America. This stimulated the machine production of glass marbles in the U.S.A. This production technique and the machines themselves are now found in many countries, east and west.

At the time of writing, there are only thought to be three people in the world making glass marbles by hand. One of these modern, handmade ranges is available through the House of Marbles and one can still sometimes find early examples in antique shops. However they are much sought after as collectors’ items and are becoming increasingly scarce. A marble made of pure, ground marble, or other suitable stone, is highly prized and regarded as being the most accurate for shooting. They are expensive and therefore they are rare. Conversely, clay marbles are very inexpensive, but they tend to be inaccurate in dimensions and dull in appearance and, although they were once the most common of marbles, lack of demand has made them hard to find. These days, marbles are made from all sorts of materials, but glass remains by far the most popular. Glass lends itself to machine production and provides an article which is appealing to the eye and the touch.     http://www.ustoysandgames.com/custom.em?pid=855231