I recall the now of late late night TV host Tom Snyder who once
visited with a man in the Seattle area who (as i recall) had over an
estimated 1 million glass marbles in his collection. I think it was
tied in with a contemporary artist on a wharf there who worked in the
furnace "glory holes" of art glass making and blowing. It was an
interesting show.

There was an excavation in lower Manhattan which recovered some clay
marbles as you describe in "Alphabet City" which is named from the
avenues made on top of land fill, where previous the various shipyards
had been (Webb, whom our government ignored became an Institute of
naval architecture on Long Island) and their "church on a barge"
(around 10th Street and Avenue C?) are named using the alphabet rather
than a negative number, using Avenue A, Avenue B, etc. instead of 0
Ave., -1 Ave. -2 Ave. from west to east into the East River. Not
really a river it was also called the Sound River as it connects with
the Long Island Sound through the former Hellgate (from Dutch "light
gate" foaming water over rocks) and because of prevailing west to east
winds, made it advantageous for the mooring of ships in the age of
sail.

In this cistern feature, "circa Civil War water control feature" next
door to a ship "furniture" workshop, apparently occupied by two
tailors over it, were also "abolitionist" coins that were minted and
distributed in the coinage of the city to remind people of the cause
of abolition, perhaps in competition with "bar tokens". On the same
lot the Steven Spielberg film "Batteries Not Included" was filmed and
nearby were local gardens that were threatened under the former Mayor
Giuliani administration which was stopped by an effort started by
Bette Midler to purchase all the community gardens from the city to
keep the small pocket gardens alive which was followed by larger
donations. She was given an award in parks and preservation on Long
Island, NY sometime after.

The behavior you cite seems to be consistent thrown away along with
the remains of over a dozen chamber pots which may have coincided with
arrival in that neighborhood with public water. It seemed to be a
complete set with large shooters and smaller marbles, glazed, hand
painted and glass. The site was to be a housing police headquarters
for all public housing below 42nd Street and to contain some low to
middle income housing. The contractor hired non-union workers and we
had to cross a picket line there to work. I lost a toolbox perhaps as
a result. We used to have lunch around the corner in the Castillo de
Jaguar. It was a rough neighborhood, and one episode of "Law and
Order" with Jerry Orbach was taped while we were there. The "PSA 4
(Police Service Area) Site".

George Myers