Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Pellet Crossbow ca. 1550 – 1600, Probably Italian or French[1] Some of you may hunt with crossbows or may use them recreationally. Others may also use stone bows or pellet bows and you may know all about different type pellets, caliber, velocity, and overall firepower. Well, … [Read more...] about Stonebows Using Marbles?
Archives
Dispatch From A Moscow Museum
Co-Author: Wendy Leyn, Zonnebeke, Belgium All photos by Dr. Maria Tendryakova Dr. Maria Tendryakova[1] sent our frequent co-author Wendy Leyn an amazing email and photographs after her recent visit to the toys exhibition in the Museum of Archeology of Moscow. Dr. Tendryakova is Senior Researcher at the Institute of Ethnology and … [Read more...] about Dispatch From A Moscow Museum
Marble Playing as an Expression of Traditional Kuwaiti Life
Author: Professor Dr. Caroline Janssen[1] Prologue: Jo & Larry Garrett In our story “Funny Money: Playing Marbles on Notes and Coins” (https://thesecretlifeofmarbles.com/funny-money-playing-marbles-on-notes-coins/), we write that while living and traveling in the Middle East (between 1985 – 2001), we never saw adults or … [Read more...] about Marble Playing as an Expression of Traditional Kuwaiti Life
The History of Marbles in Canada
Photo: Julie Toupin 2019, Creative Commons 4.0 (by-nc-nd) Pointe-à-Callière, Montréal Archaeology & History Complex/CeEt-14 > Operation 2134-35 > Catalogue Number 13, Archéolab Quèbec La Collection Archéologique De Référence Du Québec[1] Principle Researchers Wendy Leyn, Zonnebeke, Belgium & Julia McIntosh, Library … [Read more...] about The History of Marbles in Canada
Funny Money: Playing Marbles on Notes & Coins
Co-author: Wendy Leyn, Zandvoorde (Zonnebeke), Belgium Around Christmas 2015 Larry was speaking with Dare Hawkins, a marble friend of ours in Weston, West Virginia, about some questions we had about marbles. Dare is semi-retired and volunteers at the American Museum of Glass in West Virginia which is located in Weston … [Read more...] about Funny Money: Playing Marbles on Notes & Coins
The Wearable Marble
When we were living in Kissimmee, Florida several years ago, we camped all over the state. One of our favorite trips was to the Florida Everglades where we were awed by the color and shapes in the flora and fauna. We took more pictures there than usual. From these we selected a few as inspiration for the glass colors for a marble … [Read more...] about The Wearable Marble
Invisible Children
For a very long time children had no role in archaeology. Child’s play, children’s toys, the life and health of children, and children’s roles in society were seldom mentioned in archaeological field dig reports. Children, toys, and games and children’s material cultures were almost never mentioned at learned meetings and … [Read more...] about Invisible Children
Rolley Hole Update
In a previous post, we wrote a short announcement about attending a rolley hole tournament. We recently learned about a long-standing tournament in Tennessee and a permanent rolley hole yard which honors a marble maker named Bud Garrett Robert “Bud” Garrett was an African-American musician, marble maker and supporter of a … [Read more...] about Rolley Hole Update
French Marble Triangles
Senior Author: Wendy Leyn, Zonnebeke, Belgium Deceased, 2024 In our October 2023 post “Circles, Triangles, & Holes” we described how children in different countries tend to draw different patterns on the ground, or in chalk or on cobbles, in which to set up their marble games. In the Americas, for example, … [Read more...] about French Marble Triangles
Mid-Western American Hot Glass
Remember James Harvey Leighton? Marble collectors everywhere and those who just have a love of marble history remember Leighton for his 1891 patent for the "manufacture of glass spheres". This was the first U.S. patent issued to make toy glass marbles by machine instead of by hand. Double Dipping? As described in our recent post … [Read more...] about Mid-Western American Hot Glass
Sand: Another Four Letter Word?
Smithsonian Open Access|Smithsonian Institution[1] Have you ever heard a story or read an anecdote in a book, magazine, or online which you then could not get off of your mind? Hopefully, that happened with one of our stories! While later searching or just browsing online or while working on a project with your marbles, have you … [Read more...] about Sand: Another Four Letter Word?
History Flashback: Dave McCullough & D.A.S. Marbles
Recognize these D.A.S. marbles? These were made by the legendary Dave McCullough (deceased 2024) in his hot glass shop Dave's Appalachian Swirls in Pennsboro, W.V. Dave was the premier colorist of the 20th and 21st centuries. In the March 29, 2012 online issue of Poor Richard's Almanac, Dave is referred to as having set the … [Read more...] about History Flashback: Dave McCullough & D.A.S. Marbles
