Product Description

Many new color photographs showcasing thousands of machine-made and contemporary marbles have been added to make this book an even bigger Big Book of Marbles. This third edition brings marble collectors even more information, with added discussion on marbles at auctions, art glass and new comics, and listings of marble clubs. Grist has also drawn from one of his other books, Machine-Made & Contemporary Marbles, for this new edition. Now with almost 400 large, detailed full-color photographs, this book is the essential resource for the marble collector. Fifty new shots have been added to the 400 detailed color photographs, and over 1,000 marbles produced by West Virginia companies have been identified for this new edition. The author enlisted the help of knowledgeable historian Ron Shepherd, co-founder and past president of the West Virginia Marble Collectors Club for this volume.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #299401 in Books
• Published on: 2006-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 204 pages

Review
This book is a comprehensive identification and value guide for both antique and machine-made marbles. Manufacturers are discussed, and thousands of marbles are shown - transparent swirls, onionskins, agates, sulphide, china, clambroth, and many other types. Marble related items, which are also collectibles, are also shown.

Customer Reviews

Everett Grist's Big Book of Marbles
The book was complete concerning the marbles and marbles companies shown, but the book missed its mark by not going into greater depth and detail concerning the great variety of individual marbles. The book lists several prices of near mint marbles of various sizes but stops there. I would have liked to seen prices for the not so perfect marbles (different grades) and, in my opinion, should have been about twice as thick to cover photos and descriptions of a greater variety of marbles, not just submissions from his collector friends.

A Must For the Beginning Collector
Grist has made it easy for young and old alike to discover the wonderful world of marble collecting--without getting taken to the cleaners. Not only does this volume throughly describe how to identify various marbles, it pictures many of the common marble varieties with very clear, full color, closeup photographs. Especially beneficial in identification is Grist's description of the manufacturing process which helps one understand why different marbles are marked the way they are and dispells a common myth that marbles must be perfect to be valuable. This volume did not earn a fifth star only because it seemed so short, but it is indeed a great addition to a collector's library.

Some nice pictures, but woefully inadequate
I decided after attending a national collector-run marble show in my area to get this updated Third Edition of Grist's book, because it looked like it would have enough new pictures to make identifying all those troublesome common marbles a possibility. And the pictures in the book are nice, being clear and color-accurate, and showing multiple marbles so one can see the range of designs/colors that fall within a category. However, I've always considered Grist to be a lazy author, and this just confirms it. Yes, it takes some work to get the pictures of so many marbles, but that is something almost anyone could eventually do. This is sub-titled a 'comprehensive' ID book, so I expected Grist to deliver. He does not even come close to delivering on that promise! First of all, many marbles are left out and many more poorly dealt with. As new as I am to marbles, even I know that there are subtle differences that help one to differentiate between marble companies. Yet Grist has virtually NO TEXT explaining how to ID various types of marbles. It is simply pictures and an occassional comment, and as we all know, pictures of certain marbles, such as cateyes, do not do justice in showing the differences. Those need to be EXPLAINED (how many vanes, shape, etc) because the differences usually do not show well in pictures. None of this happens. Many of the Peltier marbles are simply lumped together as 'Champion Jrs.' with none of the common names used in the trade included. And as far as being a comprehensive value guide, only ranges are given with no differention for size or condition given. That is hardly a comprehensive price guide! On top of that, most prices on common marbles (under $10 each) appear to be grossly inflated over what is actually happening in the marketplace today. I wish I could get those prices for my commons - I'd be rich! The final insult is the poor editing done in the book. "Peltier" is spelled "Pelitier" half the time. There are pictures where the heading states "row 1" when it means "column 1." Just plain sloppy. Most pictures of the rarities have no prices at all and only general category IDs for the entire group shown. In general, a nice picture book but nothing about it is 'comprehensive' - just more false advertising. Why can't anyone put out a book with the quality and extent of pictures Grist does and the helpful, detailed text and variety listings such as Block attempts? Then we would be approaching a 'comprehensive ID and value guide.' So far, I've found nothing close.