Machine Made Marbles

The manufacturing of machine-made marbles began in America very early in the twentieth century. In the first few decades, only a handful of companies dominated the industry. Many of these early marbles were made with expensive types of glass in bright colors and are valued today. After 1945, with waning popularity of the game of marbles, and with the flood of foreign-made cat's-eyes in the 1950s, many manufacturers went out of business, and the quality of marbles of marbles produced by surviving companies generally declined. For this reason, many old types of marbles are distinct, easy to identify, and valued today.