Is there anything to distinguish these marbles from clay balls used to aid
in the pre-baking of a pie shell?  (Nowadays most cooks use rice or beans,
it keeps the pie shell from bubbling up and probably helps distribute heat
throughout)  Sorry I don't have a reference on this, but have seen it at the
Fort Snelling historical site.
 
Laura McIlrath
IAS, University of Minnesota
[log in to unmask]
 
 
On Wed, 08 Apr 1998 11:28:24 -0400,
[log in to unmask] wrote...
>Regarding Robin MIlls' recent request for information on toy marbles, we
>have recently recovered the following examples during excavations at the
>Collins-Jones House in Burlington City, New Jersey.  These exceed the
>1/2-in. diameter marbles in which Robin Mills was specifically
>interested, but are included in this message to add to her database and
>present information on this important historic preservation success
>story.
>
>
>Provenience: crawl space deposits below kitchen floor (kitchen was
>mid-19th century                        addition)
>Material: clay
>Quantity: 2
>Description: #1-plain and completely smooth grayish-brown sphere, 1/2
>in. diameter
>                #2-"crockery" marble, blue with blurred white swirls, 3
>pock marks, 13/16 in.                   diameter
>"crockery marbles" appear to have been most popular between 1842 and
>1858, when the firm of Norton and Fenton in Bennington, VT was producing
>stoneware of similar style and glazing.  The pock marks are
>characteristic of crockery marbles and are acquired where the surfaces
>of the wet clay spheres rested against each other during the firing
>process.   They continued to be manufactured through the end of the 19th
>century, when they were replaced by machine-made glass marbles.
>
>References:
>Baumann, Paul
>  1970  Collecting Antique Marbles.  Mid-America Book Co., Leon, Iowa.
>
>Randall, Mark E.
>  1971  Early Marbles.  Historical Archaeology 5:102-105.
>
>Material: glass
>Quantity: 2
>Description: #1-multiple color swirls, machine made, 11/16 in. diameter
>                #2-multiple color swirls, machine made, 1 in. diameter
>
>
>Provenience: disturbed soils 5-9 in. below grade in unit located 2 ft.
>west of main doorway                    from kitchen to west yard.
>Material: glass
>Quantity: 1
>Description: blue swirls, machine-made, 9/16 in. diameter
>
>The Collins-Jones House was built in ca. 1750 in the center of
>Burlington City, the colonial capitol of West Jersey.  Additions were
>made in ca. 1785 and in 1810, the latter by Isaac Collins, who lived at
>the house between 1808 and 1817.  Collins was the Royal Printer of New
>Jersey for King George III and later the printer of New Jersey's weekly
>newspaper, The New Jersey Gazette.  The kitchen was added to the rear of
>the house after Collins' death in 1817, sometime in the 1830s-1840s.
>Collins' descendants occupied the house until 1871, when it was
>purchased by a locally prominent physician.  The house was used as the
>first Home for Aged Women in Burlington between 1896 and 1915, and then
>subsequently as a residence.  The property was donated by the Jones
>Family to the Burlington County Historical Society in 1991 and was
>listed in both the National and State Registers in 1992.
>
 
>Thomas A.J. Crist, Ph.D.
>Director of Archaeological/Anthropological Services
>Kise Straw & Kolodner Inc.
>123 South Broad Street, Suite 1270
>Philadelphia, PA 19109
>215-790-1050
>215-890-0215 (fax)
>
>