GLOSSARY OF MARBLE TERMS

AGATE – natural mineral, formed into a sphere and used as a marble since the mid 1800s. Usually found in the carnelian or banded variety. Can come in a variety of colors resulting from dying and pressure treatment. Handcut varieties have tiny facets, machine ground varieties are smooth.

AGGIE – shooter made from Agate.

ALLIES – derived from alley tors. Prized shooters maDe of semi-precious stones.

ANNEAL – to gradually reduce glass temperature in an oveN or Lehr, so as to inhibit cracking and relieve stress in a marble.

AVENTURINE – a type of glass containing particles of either copper (goldstone), chromium oxidE (green aventurine) or ferric oxidE (red aventurine), giving glass a glittering or shimmering effect.

BUFFED - a very light polishing to remove haziness or cloudiness from a marble’s surface. The pontil remains on a handmade marble after buffing. A machine made marble will feel slippery to the touch if buffed.

BRUISE - damage that appears under the surface of a marble, usually in the shape of a crescent moon, as a result of an impact. This mark is sometimes called a Moon, Subsurface Moon or Ding.

CANE – a long glass rod constructed of other glass rods of various colors.

CHALKIES - unglazed marbles made of clay, limestone or gypsum.

CHIP - the spot where a piece has broken off the surface of a marble, usually the result an impact. Small chips are sometimes called "flakes". A barely visible chip is sometimes called a "pinprick" or "flea bite".

CLEARIE – transparent clear glass marble, sometimes called a Purie or Crystal.

COMMIES - playing marbles made out of clay

CONTEMPORARY - a marble handmade by a modern artist. Arose out of the Studio Glass Movement of the early 1970s. 

CORK – another name for a Corkscrew marble

CRACKLED – a marble whose surface has been intentionally cracked by immersion in water and partially healed by reheating. The effect can be achieved by frying marbles on a kitchen stove then immersing them in cold water. Sometimes called Fried Marbles

CULLET- waste or broken glass which is sometimes re-used or recycled into a new batch of glass.

DAY TANK - a large furnace designed to hold one color of molten glass. Often used for the manufacture of industrial marbles.

DIAMETER - the length of a straight line through the center of a sphere. The size of a marble is measured at its diameter. Marble price guides list sizes in 1/32nd” increments.

DING - see Bruise.

DRAWING - stretching a constructed glass cane to the diameter required for marble making.

END-OF-CANE - a handmade marble that was the first (first off cane) or last (last off cane) one produced from a cane. The are identifiable as marbles where the internal design ends before the bottom pontil or appears out of the top of the marble.

FACETED - when the pontil of the marble is ground off leaving a faceted surface.

FIRE-POLISHING - when the pontil or surface of a marble is smoothed by heating the outer surface of hard glass to a temperature with a flame to remove surface imperfections.

FLAKE - a small spot on a marble with a thin layer of surface glass has broken off as the result of a hit.

FLEA BITE- tiny damage mark on the surface as the result of impact. Sometimes called a pit or pinprick.

FRACTURE - an internal stress line caused by impact, chemical stress or thermal stress to the glass. Term also applies to a hairline crack in a sulphide figure caused during manufacture.

FURNACE - a structure designed to hold a day tank, pot or continuous tank of glass and heat it to approximately 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

FRIED MARBLES - see Crackled.

GAFFER - master glassworker.

GATHER - portion of molten glass, picked up on the end of a punty rod, or fed by machine, from a furnace. Also called a Gob.

GENERAL GRANT BOARD - a game board, generally with thirty-three holes. The name is based upon the apocryphal story that General Grant, during the Siege of Vicksburg, remained in his tent drinking bourbon and playing this solitaire game, which uses marbles as game pieces. 

GLIMMER - German word for mica.

GOB - see Gather.

GOB FEEDER - machine to deliver a precise amount of molten glass to the rollers of a marble making machine.

GOLDSTONE - glass containing aventurine. See Aventurine and Lutz.

HAND-GATHERED - process of picking up a gather of glass from a furnace to make a marble.

HAND-MADE - generally refers to a marble made by hand from a cane or from a single-gather of glass.

IMMIE - streaked glass marble to imitates agate.

INDUSTRIAL MARBLES - most marbles produced are for industrial purposes. These include lithography grinding balls, pump value balls, inert bodies for chemical vats, inside spray paint cans, for the floral industry, etc.

LAUSCHA - village in the former East Germany, in the state of Thüringia, known for generations as the center of glass marble making in that country. Manufacture of glass marbles began there in the mid 1800s.

LEHR - see Annealing.

LUTZ - finely ground or powdered goldstone.

MACHINE-MADE - A marble manufactured by a machine. Generally, they are perfectly round and have no pontil marks.   

MANUFACTURER’S DEFECT- a fold, crease, additional melted glass, open air bubble, pit on a marble. Also refers to a hairline fracture in a sulphide figure.

MARVERING - rolling a gather of glass on a flat plate to shape it into a rod.

MIB - Latin for marble.

MILKIES - translucent white glass machine-made marble.

MOON – see Bruise.

NATIONAL MARBLES TOURNAMENT, THE - begun in 1923 as a newspaper promotion for the Scripps Howard Newspaper Syndicate. It has been held on the New Jersey shore since that date. Now located in Wildwood, N.J., it is today the oldest children’s sporting event in the United States.

OILIES - an iridescent machine-made glass marble first produced in the late 1980’s.

OPALESCENT- translucent to semi-opaque glass that exhibits an orangish or reddish glow when a light is shone through it.

PEE WEE - Any small marble 1/2" in diameter or less.

PINPRICK - see flea-bite.

PIT - see flea-bite.

POLISHED - grinding process to remove chips, flakes, pits, roughness, scratching or haziness from a marble. The pontil is removed during polishing a handmade. The top surface of glass of a machine made marble is removed during polishing and the heat can affect the color.

PONTIL - a rough mark left on the pole of a handmade or transitional marble where it was sheared off a cane or the end of a punty.

POT - A crucible, used in a furnace to hold a molten batch glass.

PUNTY - a long solid metal rod used to hold a glass object that is being made.

PURIE - opaque marble of any single solid color

SHEARING - process of cutting a marble off a punty, or a gob from a glass stream, when producing marbles.

SHOOTER - the marble used to aim at and strike other marbles in a game. Regulation size is 5/8” to 3/4”.

SINGLE GATHER - a marble made completely on the end of a punty and not from a cane.

SINGLE PONTIL - a marble with only one pontil, created from either the end of a cane or single-gathered.

SPARKLE - very slight damage to the surface of a marble. No glass is missing from the impact and you can only see a slight sparkling effect in the light when turning the marble.

STRIAE- elongated imperfections in glass caused by temperature differences or unequal density of materials used. Striae are not fractures.

STRIPING POT - small pot of molten glass used in the manufacturing process to add color glass to a stream.

SUBSURFACE MOON - see Bruise.

SULPHIDE - objects made of china clay and supersilicate of potash, which can then be inserted into molten glass. Used in marbles, paperweights and glass objects, especially in the mid to late 1800s.

TARGET – the marble in a game that was shot at by the shooter. Tournament regulation set the size at 5/8”.

TAW derived from alley tor. A prized shooter made of semi precious stone.

WEST VIRGINIA TRASH - term used by old time collectors to describe most machine made marbles. During the early days of the hobby, attention was focused on handmade marbles.

WHIMSEY- a small object made by a glassworker in their spare time for personal use.

Source: Marbles: Identification and Price Guide, Robert S. Block, Schiffer Publishing, Copyright 2012.