Marble Mania®
 Edited by Stanley A. Block
 (Reviewer - Rebecca Brown)
 1998 Schiffer Pub. Ltd.
  ISBN: 0764300148

The definitive photographic guide to this relatively new & exciting hobby of marble collecting that no serious collector can be without. Literally hundreds of full color displays with information on how these gorgeous globes of glass are made, played & traded.

From the Introduction: Marble Mania® is not intended to be a textbook, rather a photographic manual for the hobby of marble collecting & memorabilia. Each contributing editor authors a chapter on their specialty. Stanley A. Block is the founder of the Marble Collectors' Society of America.

Marbles were fascinating toys in my childhood. Little worlds rolling across the floor, catching the light, glowing, sparkling. Poppa, who's 89 this year, was absorbed by Marble Mania® for days & had lots of memories.

It was fun to read this big book. Found myself chatting at the local recycle shop about the blue canning jars in their windows filled with marbles. Eyeing them eagerly, with a little more knowledge & a few more names.

In England I played on my Grand-Uncle's Solitaire Marble Game & then when I got to America I discovered Chinese Checkers. I always put a bag of marbles in the children's stockings at holiday time & we all enjoyed playing with them.

Marble Mania® has fine photographs of every imaginable marble from pebbles found alongside streams to the Industrial Revolution in Germany & Austria. Here the cutting of agate cubes & polishing them into marbles for export all over the world became a huge cottage industry. You have to see the beauty of all the clay, pottery, crockery, china & porcelain globes.

Then come the Swirls, that could be planets in the cosmic deep or moving patterns only the eye can still. Then the Sulphides which are clear glass orbs with a tiny little bust or statue in the center. Next came the Machine Made Marbles & Marble Mania® shifts gears. A fascinating history is offered with splendid photos of purchase boxes & sales displays.

We are also given a gallery of Contemporary Handmade Marbles that are miniature treasures - goldfish, celestial skies, hearts. Games & Toys - a Hopalong Cassidy Chinese Checkers set - amazing! In Commercial and Industrial Uses of Marbles are revealed some esoteric uses for these glass globes together with some interesting paraphernalia.

A deeply satisfying book about marbles, the collecting thereof, their history & their values. Very well done.

Other Schiffer Titles:
PEZ® Collectibles by Richard Geary
Hot Wheels: An Unauthorized Collector's Guide by Bob Parker
(08/01/99)

Rebecca