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Types of marbles

Alley or real - made of marble or alabaster (alley is short for alabaster), streaked with wavy or other patterns with exotic names like corkscrew, spiral, snake, ribbon, onyx, swirl, bumblebee, butterfly
 

Toothpaste - wavy streaks usually with red, blue, black, white, orange

Turtle - wavy streaks containing green and yellow

Ade - strands of opaque white and color, making lemon-ade, lime-ade, orange-ade, etc.

Oxblood - a streaky patch resembling blood

Lutz - a type of swirl, taken from the skating term

Onionskin - swirled and layered like an onion

Clambroth - equally spaced opaque lines on a usually opaque base

Cats Eye or catseye - central eye-shaped colored inserts or cores (injected inside the marble)

Devils Eye - red with yellow eye

Beachball - three colors and six vanes

Viagra - a blue strand of liquid

Aggie - made of agate (aggie is short for agate) or glass resembling agate, with various patterns like in the alley

Mica - glassy to translucent with streaks or patches of mica, ranging from clear to misty

Sulphide - clear with an object inside

China - glazed porcelain, with various patterns like in the alley

Plaster - a form of china that is unglazed

Indian - dark and opaque, usually black?

Commie or common - made of clay

Bennington - clay fired in a kiln with salt glaze

Steely - made of steel

Croton alley or Jasper - glazed and unglazed china marbled with blue

Crystal or clearie or purie - any clear colored glass - including opals, glimmers, bloods, rubies,etc. These can have any number of descriptive names such as "deep blue sea".

Princess - a tinted crystal

Galaxy - lots of dots inserted like a sky of stars

  •  About Marbles

    Old Hand made Marbles

    The great majority of vintage handmade marbles were produced individually in German in the second half of the 19th century, and first decade of the 20th century. Several factors, including the invention of automated processes by US companies, and the banning of German imports at the onset of World War I sealed their demise. These were the first marbles collected, each an individually made work of art.

    Machine made Marbles
    Numerous marble companies thrived in the US during the first half of the 20th Century, capitalizing on the monopoly the US enjoyed regarding machinemade marbles.