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.
The New Jersey Historic Trusts has awarded several Historic Preservation
Bond Program Grants to rehabilitate the building for use as a Living
History Learning Center run by the Historical Society. When completed,
the Center will serve as an anchor for the revitalization of Burlington,
the east side of which comprises a fairly intact historic district that
includes the Collins-Jones House, numerous eighteenth- and
nineteenth-century residences, small commercial buildings, and some
larger nineteenth-century industrial structures. For further
information about historic Burlington and its revitalization contact Ms.
Rhett Pernot, Executive Director of the Burlington County Historical
Society, at 609-386-4773.
I hope this information is useful.
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)
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