Block’s Marble Auctions – Online Live Marble Auction #1166
4pm  Saturday February 22, 2025
www.marbleauctions.com
Trumbull, Connecticut 06611

TRUMBULL, CONN. — Block’s Marble Auctions has been auctioning marbles since 1989. The firm’s 1,165th sale will be conducted on February 22.

The highlight of the sale is a rare original box of Christensen Agate Company Guineas. Very few Guinea boxes are known to exist, and they are highly sought after by collectors. Guinea marbles, made by the Christensen Agate Company between 1925 and 1930, are one of the holy grails of marble collecting.

These marbles are a transparent base glass (usually clear, blue or amber), with brightly colored flecks of glass melted into the surface. The apocryphal story is that the marbles were named “Guinea” because the colored flecks resembled the pattern of the feathers on the guinea fowl that were in the factory yard. Original Guinea boxes are rare, with perhaps a couple dozen still existing. While this box only retains 13 of its original 25 marbles, it is still highly sought after. The box carries an estimate of $8/16,000.

Another highlight of the sale is a rare antique handmade, hand painted sulfide. The marble was made in Germany between about 1860 and 1910. It is a Victorian mourning item. The sulfide figure is a standing angel with large wings, its hands clasped in prayer. It is hand-painted with brown hair, black eyes and nose, blue wings with black dots on the lower portion of each wing and green ground and flora. Hand-painted sulfide figures are rare in marbles and angel sulfide marbles are hard to find as well. It is also unusual to find this many different colors on a sulfide in a marble. All of these factors make this a rare item. The surface has been polished, and is out of round (likely due to a large chip that was near the top prior to polishing). But the figure is of excellent detail and nicely painted. The marble carries an estimate of $1,750-$3,500.

On the vintage machine-made side of the sale, aside from the Guinea box, there are several rare Peltier Glass Company (Ottawa, Ill.) marbles, including a Golden Rebel and a Blue Galaxy. Both are keys to any Peltier collection.

The marble auction also includes more than 60 lots made by contemporary artists. The contemporary highlight is a rare Ken Rosenfeld Floral Orb. Rosenfeld, a well-known paperweight maker, encased a variety of his flameworked flowers in a glass sphere. The sphere carries a presale estimate of $1/2,000.

Immediately prior to the marble auction, Block’s is conducting its fifth paperweight auction. This auction consists of 100 antique, vintage and contemporary paperweights, including antique Baccarat, Clichy and Saint Louis paperweights, as well a wide variety of modern paperweights from such artists and studios as Deacons, Perthshire, Caithness, Lundberg and many others. An example is an antique Clichy concentric rings on stave basket. This French paperweight was produced in the mid Nineteenth Century. It carries an estimate of $650-$1,300.

Block’s runs marble auctions every month, closing on the third or fourth Saturday of each month.

For information, www.marbleauctions.com or 203-209-7076.

Full Catalog and Bidding available at www.marbleauctions.com As well as on Bidsquare and LiveAuctioneers
265 lots of Antique, Vintage, Collectible and Contemporary Marbles & 100 lots of Paperweights
Timed online auction including Antique German Handmades, Contemporary Artist Handmades, a selection of Machine-Made marbles from American companies, and related items
BLOCK’S MARBLE AUCTIONS, LLC
RO. Box 51 •Trumbull, Connecticut 06611 • (203)-209-7076 • info@marbleauctions.com
Block’s Marble Auctions is Always Looking for Quality Consignments. One Piece or Entire Collection