Marble King Marbles w/Original Box – Morphy Auctions

A Brief History of the Birth of the Modern American Toy Industry in Akron, Ohio

01 June 2011

Akronite Samuel C. Dyke ignited the modern toy industry when he automated his factory in 1884. Toy marbles have been around for thousands of years; however, until recently, they were very expensive to produce because they were created by hand: one-marble-at-a-time. Sam Dyke changed all that when he invented machinery to fully mass-produce toy marbles made out of clay, later to become nick-named “commies” by the children who were enthralled by them (because they became so common among all the varieties of marbles to be eventually produced). Read the rest at American Toy Marble Museum…

I add this post because I am just plain hooked on glass, period. Though I really never played with or collected marbles, I did get a quick and enlightening education when I met a couple marble super collectors during the past year or so. This included Jeff Wichmann and Bill O’Connor to name a few. Once you sit down and get these folks talking and showing marbles, you really make the glass connection and see that marble collecting is a fascinating and deep area of our hobby.

A search of the Internet led me to a few top selling marbles from recent Morphy Auctions.

Onion Skin Swirl Marble: $10,350 – Morphy Auctions

Onion Skin Mica Marble: $2,62.50 – Morphy Auctions

Onion Skin Blizzard Marble: $9,775 – Morphy Auctions

Indian Mag Lite Marble: $9,200 – Morphy Auctions