“What is history, but a fable agreed upon?”—Napoleon Bonaparte
On The Hunt for Marble Competition Medals
We had been learning about marble competition medals, as told in the first part of this story, for many years before we ever found one for sale. We had had no luck finding one until we visited an antique shop in Tifton, Georgia. Larry saw two local Medals, given by Royal Crown Cola in 1939, but they were not for sale because they were won by the father of the medals co-owner.
As we explained in the first story, since 1922 winning players are first selected from local tournaments held in cities and counties all around the country. Children advanced to local tournament play after winning in schools. Local tournaments were sponsored by businesses, radio stations, and newspapers. Local tournament winners went on to National Tournament play in New Jersey.
Off and Away
For a number of years we searched in Lakeland, Florida, and Polk County: Munn Park, Mirror Lake, Lake Hollingsworth (home of a wild goose!); and Dixie Land. In January 2011 we spoke by ‘phone with the owner of an antique shop in Lakeland and we learned that the shop owner had more than one competition medal! We knew a bit about Lakeland’s long history of antique and antiquities shops, but we were surprised with this news.
In 2011 there were just fewer than 100,000 people in Lakeland, while today the population of the metropolitan area is over 350,000. There are a number of diverse and interesting antique shops and malls in Lakeland. The City has long been a Mecca for tourists and a winter haven for visitors from colder climates.
We emailed Dean Six, who was instrumental in organizing the West Virginia Cairo Marble Festival. The Festival had a 20-year run until 2015 and we met Dean there for a year or two. We also knew him when he was affiliated with the American Museum of Glass in West Virginia in Weston.
We cannot imagine that anyone who has ever collected a marble is unaware of the book Popular American Marbles. Well, Dean co-authored that book and he has written or co-authored about ten more. We have used his American Machine-Made Marbles and Popular American Marbles as reference so long that we have almost completely worn them out!
What a Find!
We were happy that the shop owner had some medals for sale, but we were cautious since it had taken us so long to find even one. So, we emailed Dean. Here is his response in part: “I have never seen a marble tourney medal for sale in my state except one repro EVER and I have been watching this kind of thing for well over 20 years…none have appeared at the Cairo Marble festival that I was aware of.”
That was eleven years ago. Dean is still in the glass business in West Virginia, and we wrote an email as we were researching this story. Here is his reply: “Go with the truth, same now as then.”
We still haunt the shops, festivals, and fairs from Texas (Round Top!) to South Carolina and we still don’t see any level of medal. We cannot imagine what it would be like to find a genuine crown or antique trophy!
“Did you buy your pink elephant at a yard sale, too?”
In late January 2011 we decamped to Lakeland from Kissimmee. By now we knew that the shop owner had three of some type marble competition medals. In the shop we asked where he got the medals and he said that he got them in “yard sales.”
Back then, and even more so today, we were seasoned “yard salers”. Rain and mud; cold and slush; parking in pastures and under the pecan or monkeypod trees; blazing sun. No matter; we are accomplished at yard sales. We love estate sales, too, and have literally had to go to the Urgent Care after overdoing it at a few antique fairs and established flea markets!
And we have never, even yet in 2022, seen one single marble medal from any level of competition at a yard sale, flea market, estate sale, or antique and arts fair to include Round Top in Texas!
What Did We Find?
In the Lakeland shop we learned that one of the three medals, which had no ribbon, was an obvious recast. “Recast” is the polite term that the late Alan Basinet used for such medals. The “Marble Alan” page has been reworked.[1] He has an excellent essay online “Recast Marble Tournament Medals” as well as a “Recast Marble Medals Gallery.” There are more marble medals here than we have ever seen anywhere else.
Basinet explains that “beginning around 1997, National Marbles Tournament and VFW Tournament medals have been reproduced. These have mostly been recast in silver, and at least thirteen examples are known. [Emphasis added.] There are several methods for detecting the recast medals. The detailing is inferior to the genuine examples because they were formed from molten metal poured into molds rather than be stamped from dies.”
Ok, as far as we were concerned, the first medal we saw was worthless. A second, a National Tournament, was also almost certainly a recast, although a good representation. In fairness, the dealer made no claims about any of the medals.
The Real Thing
The third marble medal, in the lead of this Story, does not look like a recast. In fact, except for the ribbon color, it looks exactly like photograph #575 ‘Tournament Medal’ in Robert Block Marble Collectors Handbook, 2005, page 198. It is for the Jersey Observer Sectional Champions 1931.
Our Navy or dark blue ribbon is more worn than the Block medal. The clasp is original and it looks authentic. However, as you can see in the photograph at the start of this Story or above, the detail is sharp and crisp, the medal is brass, and the medal is die cast.
The back of this third Medal in is stamped ‘Jersey Observer’; ‘Sectional Champions’; ‘1931’. The date was early for these type Tournaments. Good. As we explain in our first Story, the newspapers used early marble tournaments as a giant promotional.
Now for a double shock: first, the dealer did not want to sell this medal! But if he did sell it, the price would be off the charts. We suddenly remembered that this is the same shop where we saw our first $2,000.00 marble!
So, while we walked around the shop to talk it over, the dealer re-locked the case, and he said later that he hoped we would not buy it!
When we offered a credit card to buy it, he said it would cost an extra 5% to use the card. We have no idea whether or not the dealer knew the medal was real; he is a collector and just did not want to sell! So, why display your personal collection it in a case with everything else in the case for sale and yet not place a “NFS” sticker on it. Some dealers just write “Display only.”
Ok, the horse is in the barn. Now for the fun part!
We bought it and here is how we went about researching the medal. This part can be fun and you usually learn a lot in the process. You also get to meet some interesting people along the way. The first thing we did when we got home was to check online to see if there is or ever was a Jersey Observer newspaper. There was. It was published in Hoboken from 1924 – 1951. So, there was a newspaper and the dates were right. But did the Observer ever sponsor the Championship?
To try and find out Larry emailed Ms. Cynthia T. Harris, MLS, who was Manager of the New Jersey Room of the Jersey City Free Public Library. We checked and apparently Ms. Harris is now retired.
She quickly responded and wrote in part: “In 1931 the Jersey Observer sponsored its fourth annual marble tournament. The championship was held on June 13 and there was good coverage in the paper. John Masterson was the winner who would go on to represent Hudson County in the national championship….”
Well, What Do You Know!
So not only is the medal real, we now knew the little boy who won it and the day he did it! We are astounded! Ms. Harris told us how to order the copies of the original newspaper (we do not know if they are paper or microfiche), and we ordered some by USPS. Ms. Harris was right! The story even made the front page above the fold on June 20, 1931!
We are not positive that the Library of Congress Website Chronicling America has the Jersey Observer online, but today we would always start any newspaper search there.
Quick aside: Francis Albert Frank Sinatra was born on December 12, 1915 in Hoboken. He worked unloading trucks for the Jersey Observer and some sources report that he also delivered papers for them. And how about this: Sinatra “Worked as copy boy and reporter covering college sports for Jersey Observer, during early 1930s.”[2] Yep. The same Sinatra who later became a huge recording artist.
From the information we had, we wrote the article “Marble Tournament Medal History Mystery” for publication in the April 2011 Clarksburg Crow which is the newsletter of the Akro Collectors Club.
Switching Gears: 2019
In September we discovered Avonlea Antiques & Interiors in Jacksonville, Florida.[3] This is the largest antiques and interiors mall in North Florida with 40,000 sq.ft. and 200 “of the finest dealers and designers in Florida.” We spent most of one day in the mall, but we could have used more time! We probably only visited about one third of the vendors. We highly recommend Avonlea.
And there is one other interesting nook in the mall: The Full Circle Eatery has both snacks and full meal service. “The eatery also boasts wine, beer and champagne….”
We met a marble collector and broker at Anonlea. He was a remarkable gentleman who knew what he had, was willing to sell everything in the shop, and his prices were fair. This dealer was a very serious marble collector, but by 2019 he had stopped collecting and was downsizing.
Just one of the things we bought from him is the authentic 1940 School Championship medal which you see here. The front of the medal reads “National Marbles Tournament 1940” while the reverse reads: “School Championship awarded to” and “by The Cleveland Press.”
The Cleveland Press ceased publication June 17 1982 after 103 years of print publication. Its parent company , Scripps Howard papers, sponsored players and paid for both the child’s and his or her chaperones’ expenses at the National Tournament in New Jersey. The odd thing about our medal is that it was never awarded! The spot for the name is blank!
But This Medal . . .
We have been unable to learn who did win the 1940 School Championship in Cleveland or Cuyahoga County. We have, however, learned that Irene Graves Warner, who was born in 1922 in Cleveland, Ohio, and who attended Euclid Park School, was the school’s first female marble champion. “She represented her school in the Cleveland Marble Tournament.” So, she was a school champion, but we are unsure exactly when. She graduated in 1940 from Collinwood High School in Cleveland.[4]
Incidentally, the winner of the 1940 National Marble Tournament was James Music of Huntington West Virginia.
Our 1940 ribbon is still on the card branded L.G. Balfour Co. Attleboro, Mass. Larry emailed the staff of the Museum of American Glass in West Virginia about this medal. This is his correspondence and the response he received from Tom Felt whom we introduced in the first Story. “Has anyone ever seen a National Marbles Tournament [medal] which was not issued to anyone? I recently found one in a shop which is 1940, sponsored by the Cleveland Press, but there is no name on the medal. I wonder if the Press simply did not sponsor anyone in 1940? Anyone seen a medal which was not issued to anyone? … Thanks in advance for your help.”
Tom replied: “I’ve not seen any medals from the National Marbles Tournament that were not actually issued to someone, but suspect that the one you found might have just been an extra, produced as a back-up in case an error was made on the one that was actually given out. …. We may never know the entire story of your medal, but it’s a nice find, anyway. Tom at the Museum of American Glass in WV.”
So, not only is our medal authentic, but it is rare and seldom comes on the market!
We are spellbound while reading about the high drama, not in an international world crisis or natural catastrophe, but in Ocean City, New Jersey on the 25th of June 1931. Here is an excerpt from the Jersey Observer: “Coming as the climax to a big dinner tendered to the 46 marble champions and their escorts at the Yacht Club here last night was the announcement that Gerard Tanguay, of Holyoke, Mass Eastern League winner, had been stricken with tonsillitis and would be unable to participate in the semi-final round of the National Marble tournament today.
A conference of the Rules Committee resulted in the selection of Jackie Masterson, Hudson County marble champion and runner-up in the Eastern League, to replace Tanguay in the semi-finals.” You might remember that Jackie Masterson is the winner of our 1931 medal!
If you have a medal but have not researched it yet, then we recommend that you do. Learn all you can about it and enjoy the ambience of a bygone America. And if you don’t have one yet, we recommend you start hunting!
Want to read more about Marble Competition?
Comment:
“Once again, great work!!” Tom Felt, Museum of American Glass in West Virginia, Weston, WV
Footnotes for Our Article about Marble Competition Medals:
- https://buymarbles.com/marblealan-medals.html 8/14/2022 ↑
- https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/music-popular-and-jazz-biographies/frank- 8/15/2022 ↑
- https://avonleamall.com/about-us/ 8/16/2022 ↑
- https://obits.cleveland.com/us/obituaries/cleveland/name/irene-warner-obituary?pid=124465638 8/16/2022 ↑
