As well as the tourist 'standard' size
eggs, you also find smaller ones (definitely knocked-up from off-cuts or chips
off larger projects), which tend to be 'any old size', so long as they can be
finnished in an egg shape, and here's a few with a couple of glass eggs!
Three medium sized eggs, I love the green
and white one, it really does look like a slightly squashed planet, while the
white one is - presumably - a piece of top-notch alabaster marble? I don't
know; just guessing again!
These are real tiny ones; the biggest may
be 'blood agate'? The middle one looks like a real egg! The smallest is so
small I don't know why anyone bothered with the effort of making it . . .
apprentice piece maybe? Hosepipe O-rings make great display stands for these
little'uns.
Four of the above in their section of the
display cabinet, along with three actual marble marbles, originally known as
'Taws' they are much prized in the world of marble playing for use as a
'shooter' or shooting-marble, some being made of semi-precious stone.
The reason I had hoped to start these posts
on Friday is because Good Friday is an important day in the marble player's calendar,
but most of the significance is not good - various clubs allow for the
confiscation of any marbles played after certain times on Good Friday, usually
12-noon.
Also a small, clear, glass-egg paperweight
is to be seen (bottom left), the plinth is also glass, but as black as the
devils cloak!
This is also glass, I can't remember the
name of it and Google won't help while I'm writing this away from the Internet,
but it's a special type of Victorian glass made with arsenic (probably pretty
dangerous - or even deadly - for the makers), which produces this smoked, faux
opal effect. It is also a paperweight with a flat portion to sit on.
What passes for a pontil-mark hints darkly
at the lethality of the material used. The little blackened 'V' looking like
something you might find on a wizard's forehead!
Another perfect sphere, this one is too big
for a playable marble; I suspect, so more of a decorative item, and also
looking very planet-like.
