Early games used balls made of stone such as marble, hence the name. Glass marbles were called steelies. Clay marbles were called commoneys. Brown marbles were called stonies and alabaster marbles were called allies. Children made their own marbles by rolling and baking clay.
However, once these balls were produced in large quantities, a child could buy a couple of them with a penny. Akron, Ohio, was one of the first cities that produced marbles in large amounts. The factories could make as many as one million marbles per day--enough to fill a railroad boxcar.
In the s, the Japanese invented a marble called "cat's eye" that was a solid marble with eye-shaped swirls and designs. Other types of marbles include the aggie, short for "agate," with patterns; onionskin, which is swirled and layered like an onion; turtle, with streaks of yellow and green; steely, made of steel and mica; and clear, with patches that are opaque.
Marbles are often auctioned off in the hundreds of dollars range, depending on their rarity. Although some of the first balls were made from clay and stone, these are not necessarily the ones that are most desirable.
Normally, the marbles that dealers want most are the ones handmade from glass in the s. Some of these were over two inches in diameter, especially the ones from approximately to These were made for an adult game that was played on carpets in Victorian homes.
Many of the early handmade and factory-produced American marbles are also very collectible. The early Greeks played various games with nuts. One of these, called Omilla, was very similar to the game of Ring Taw which is still played today. There are frequent references to marbles and marble type games played with nuts throughout Roman literature. Ovid describes various nut games in his poem 'The Walnut Tree'.
It is probably fair to assume the Romans took this popular form of entertainment with them to all parts of their empire. Children playing marbles appear in Roman murals in Bath, England. Clay marbles have been found in a settlement influenced by Roman culture in North Western India dating from the second century AD. We know that 'marbles' was played throughout Europe. There are mentions of the game in Shakespeare. The Czech educationalist Johan Comenski talks of them in his book of and they are seen in a painting by Pieter Bruegel.
Watch marble production on "How It's Made":. Marbles were really popular throughout the early part of the 20th century, but World War II rationing, plus the utter chaos of the European Theatre, put a damper on the sport. It enjoyed a brief resurgence in the s, and continues to be played today, but it has never been able to reclaim its title as a childhood institution.
To the layman, a marble is just a marble. But if you're an experienced player, you probably have a half-dozen slang terms to describe the sphere in front of you. Marbles usually earn their nickname based upon what they look like, what they're used for, or the material used to make them.
For example, "aggies" are marbles that are made from agate, a type of stone. An "alley" can be a marble made of alabaster, but it can also be another term for a "shooter" or "taw," the large marble used to knock around the smaller ones, which are sometimes called "mibs" or "ducks. Sometimes the figurine is an animal, a character like Santa Claus , or even a real person like Teddy Roosevelt, at left.
And if you can spot any of these marbles on sight, you're probably a "mibster," a term for someone who plays marbles. In-game slang includes many phrases that have made it into the everyday lexicon. For example, to "knuckle down" means to put your hand in a position to shoot your marble, keeping at least one knuckle on the ground at all times. If you're about to take an easy shot with your taw, you can say the marble you're aiming for is a "dead duck.
Oddly enough, the origin of the phrase, "losing your marbles" can't definitively be traced back to the game of marbles.
However, if you were to lose all your marbles in a "for keeps" game, you probably would go a little bit crazy. You might think you know how to play marbles, but I'm afraid you don't.
That's because there is no single game called "marbles.
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