Champion Metallics

Not too much is known of the Champion Metallics but I believe they were made in the 1980s. I find them to be interesting and very pretty.

Box Set of Champion Marbles

Box set of Champion marbles circa 1940s. From the collection of Bill and Vicki Bass. On display at the 2008 Las Vegas Marble Show

Champion Coral

The Champion Agate Company made these brilliant transparent green and opaque coral marbles in the 1940s.

Champion Agate Swirls

In the early 1980s, Champion produced a series of marbles similar to two-color and three-color swirls produced during the 1930s. Hence, they're referred to as "New Old Fashioned." Those pictured are shooter sized.

Champion Backlash

In 1988 a marble machine operator accidentally dropped a welding rod into a melting tank/furnace of clear glass. It resulted in a kind of metallic wire pull. Dennis Webb gave me this marble in 1991. Only about 250,000 were made.

Champion Furnace Marbles

These were made in the mid 1990s from recycled cathedral glass, which was brought to Champion Agate by Wissmuch Glass, a flat glass manufacturer in Paden City, WV.

Marble Makers - Machine Made

Hereafter is an alphabetical list of the widely known makers of machine made marbles.

Maker: Akro Agate Company
Location: Akron, OH (1911-1914) then moved to Clarksburg, WV (1914-1951)
Prime Dates: 1930s-1940s
Types: corkscrews, slags, Popeyes, oxbloods, ades & carnelians
Note 1: Akro sold box sets from five to more than a hundred per box. It also produced metal box sets and sacks of marbles.
Note 2: During the Great Depression Akro had three fourths of U.S. marble sales.
Note 3: Akro Agate was established in Akron, Ohio in 1911 for the purpose of making glass marbles and marble games. It's name was coined from the town Akron, and it became the trademark for all of their glass items. The company logo was a crow flying through the letter "A" clutching marbles in its mouth and each claw. Around the picture was the motto "Shoot straight as Akro flies."

Maker: Alley Agate Co.
Location: Pennsboro, WV and St. Mary's, WV
Dates: 1929-1947
Type: Moss Agates, Opaque swirls, Translucent swirls, Transparent Patch, Transparent swirl, opaques.

Maker: Champion Agate Co
Location: Pennsboro, WV
Dates: 1938 to present
Type: furnace, metallic, pistachios, and corals

Maker: Christensen Agate Company
Location:Cambridge Ohio(1925-1933)
Dates: 1930s and 40s
Types: Guineas, slags, stripes & flames

Maker: Jabo, Inc.
Location: Reno, Ohio
Dates: 1987 to present
Types: Classics, floaters

Maker: Marble King, Inc.
Location: Paden City, WV
Dates: 1949 to present
Types: cat eyes, marine crystals, Chinese checker marbles and glass marbles.
Note: marbles for toys, oil filters and fish hatchery spawning pools.

Maker: Master Glass Company
Location: Bridgeport WV
Dates: 1941-1974
Type: cat eyes, sunbursts, translucents

Maker: Master Marble Company
Location: Clarksburg, WV
Dates: 1930-1941
Type: transparents, translucents, moss agates, opaque swirls

Maker: Peltier Glass Company
Location: Ottawa, IL
Dates: 1940s
Types: rainbos, slags, picture marbles & peerless patches

Maker: Ravenswood Glass and Novelty Company
Ravenswood Novelty Works
Location: Ravenswood WV 1928-1930
Ravenswood WV 1931-1944, 1947-1955
Types: opaque swirls, clearies


Maker: Vacor De Mexico
Location:Mexico
Dates: 1930s to present
Type:galaxy, meteor

Maker: Vitro Agate Company/Gladding-Vitro Agate Company
Location: Parkersburg, WV
Dates: 1932-1993
Type: parrot, patches, V patches, cateyes, Fisher Jewel Trays