Rats! Foiled Again.
We recently asked any visitor to the Blog “Rats and Knuckle Down” if they had ever seen the sculpture, casting, marble collectable, or whatever it is of two rats knuckled down to a game of marbles. Well, that figurine remains a big mystery because no one has responded. Yet.
In the Rat Blog we also made reference to Chapter 1 of our book The Secret Life of Marbles Their History and Mystery, “Where Marbles Come from and Why” where we explore both the term “knuckle down” and where it originated.
Finally, toward the end of the Blog “Rats and Knuckle Down” we noted that we were hardly finished with the idea of knuckles down. We closed by noting that we have many marble collectable Norman Rockwell memorabilia which have as their inspiration the 1939 Saturday Evening Post art “Knuckles Down.” We have a glass tumbler, Christmas ornament, bell, coffee cup, figurines, collector’s plate, child’s cream pitcher, and even a music box!
Knuckle Down Cream Pitcher
In late July 2014 we visited Morning Glori Antique Mall in Leesburg, Florida where we found an amazing little cream pitcher marble collectable from a child’s tea set. It shows two little boys knuckles down at marbles. We certainly could not afford it at $95.00, so we shopped in nearby Wildwood and talked it over at length. $95.00 could buy a lot of marbles! Still, the dealer was offering a 40% discount for cash, and we had never seen the little creamer before.
As it turns out, we have never seen it since either! Finally, we returned to the shop and bought it. Made by the Homer Laughlin China Company, ca. 1871 – 2020, [1] our little creamer is only 2½” tall and extends 4¼” spout to handle. It is in mint condition with only some minor expected wear in the red rim line as you can see in the photo. It is porcelain and we believe that the lines and the two little boys, who look almost Oriental on our piece, are hand painted. Of course, it could also be transfer ware. The boys are playing with red marbles which could be clay. The colors are still bright.
Our backstamp was smeared at the factory, but it is clearly a piece of Homer Laughlin. Using the “Restaurant Ware Collectors Network®” guide online, our code ‘6 5 L’ gives a June 1915. having been made in East Liverpool, Ohio. The pattern Stamped as ‘Empress’ and introduced in 1907, is rare. We know that Homer Laughlin made children’s sets as late as the Fiesta period (1936), but we know nothing else about them.
This Old Man Marble Collectable
Of all the marble-related things we have which are based on the 1939 Saturday Evening Post art “Knuckles Down,” (glass tumbler, drinking glass, Christmas ornament, bell, etc.) our favorite marble collectable is the music box! And just like the little creamer, you don’t see these every day.
In February 2009 we were exploring the shops in Plant City, Florida, which is one of our favorite “antique towns”. We always bought lunch at the Whistle Stop and watched the trains roar through town. On this trip we bought a first for our collection: a musical box (featured at top)! It is the large edition, and is about 6⅛” tall and 15” around. It has a built-in wind up key.
A metal tag on front reads “Marbles Champion” The Saturday Evening Post Norman Rockwell. Of course, it is “Knuckles Down” published as the Saturday Evening Post cover on 2 September 1939.[2] For some reason, this print is called many things such as “Marble Champ”, but almost never by its real name.
Amazing Details on Music Box
The attention to detail is amazing. One boy’s marble bag is on the ground, the marbles (the girl has too many for her bag and no pockets!) are each crisp and distinct, and you can even see the part in her hair! The wind stem is branded Sankyo, and we thought this was the maker of the music mechanism. However, research shows that Sankyo Seiki, which started in Japan in 1948, made the entire musical box.
Sankyo is the “biggest manufacturer of music boxes in the world and supplies music box hardware to other manufacturers and distributors. Sankyo now sells licenses for its music box tunes to cellular phone companies for use as ring tones.”[3]
And speaking of tunes we cannot imagine that there has ever been a “marble song” written. So this musical box plays This Old Man. Most people, like us, think the name is Nick Nack Paddy Whack.
The history of this ditty is muddy at best; simply labeled as “traditional”, with no author, and no time frame. Both a nursery rhyme and a children’s marching song, the 1959 Cyril Stapleton and his Orchestra took the tune to the “Greatest Hit” List as The Children’s Marching Song. Often sung in pubs, the song lends itself to extremely questionable wording and cadence. It makes an awful earworm.
Marble Shooter Collectable
Did we mention that we have a lot of other marble shooter collectables? We do! Check out the Christmas ornament to the far right on the shelf. We even own a Royal Bayreuth collectable plate (1982) showing Sun Bonnet and another little girl playing some type rollie, and another plate showing Tom Sawyer charging Huck Finn marbles to allow him to whitewash Aunt Polly’s fence. We would love to talk about each and every one of these but we need to close now and wind our music box! That tune is driving us nuts!
[1] https://antiques.lovetoknow.com/vintage-japanese-music-box 2021
[1] See Thomas S. Buechner’s Norman Rockwell: Artist and Illustrator (Harry N. Abrams, Inc. 1970), no page number but Print #341.
[1] When we got home we researched the little pitcher, finding an entry for it: http://marbleforum.blogspot.com/search/label/Homer%20Laughlin 2014; 2021. For much more on Homer Laughlin check https://www.thesprucecrafts.com/homer-laughlin-china-co-149226 2021
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