Digging or forking the ground in our Spittal garden turns up a seemingly endless stream of bits of concrete, brick, slate and stone. Rusty nails, lengths of bailer twine, bones and broken crockery add to the variety. Occasionally there’s unexpected treasure too.
Unlike most of the miscellaneous odds and ends we dig up, these marbles must have been lost not thrown away. We’re cultivating ground that has been under rough grass for at least twenty years, some parts much longer than that. Some of the marbles are rough and worn, others look good as new. Who were the children who lost these treasures? We’ll never know.
The two clay marbles warm up quickly in your hand and feel surprisingly light.
The plain, green tinted marbles, rough and pitted like sea glass, probably come from the necks of old lemonade bottles. The opaque, swirled marbles are smooth and almost flawless. Are they harder and more resistant to wear than the others or were they lost more recently? The small, dark blue one isn’t a marble at all, it’s a bead from a broken necklace.
Sixteen small spheres, ordinary but unique. Each with its own, unknown story
Click on any photo for a closer view.
Beyond the Window Box 
April 11, 2020 at 9:53 am
So pretty and interesting Judith.
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April 11, 2020 at 8:37 pm
Thanks, Liz. Taking photos of the marbles made me look more closely at them!
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April 11, 2020 at 11:21 pm
Oh I love these treasures a lot.
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April 14, 2020 at 7:50 am
Nice! I’ve been lucky enough to find some of my own while helping my son landscape his property. I say lucky because I’m a collector of marbles. The town he lives in is known for its marble quarries, so many of its homes have marble accents and walkways. while digging, I found several glass marbles that I haven’t been able to identify. I also found Marble made marbles. The home was built during the heyday of the quarry’s operating days in the late 1890’s, and all of the marbles I found were handmade(blown glass)
Looking at yours, the more modern looking ones are likely machine made, so probably made after 1915. Still a gem in my book. the older greenish ones could be industrial marbles that came out of aerosol cans like spray paints. My grandfather used to open his cans and save the marbles for himself. Plumbers also used to use clear marbles to make sure that pipes were angled properly. Your clay marbles are great, and could be German, Chinese, or Native American from the early to mid 1800’s. They are well worn, but in wonderful condition. All in all, it’s a sweet little haul you have, considering its all out of the ground. Kids back in those days would “knuckle down” any chance they got, anywhere they could. There’s no telling exactly HOW they got separated from their marbles, but lucky for us, they did. I think it gives the marbles a story to tell. Those stories are fabricated in our individual imaginations. My Marble Room has over 20,000 stories to tell.
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April 14, 2020 at 8:59 am
Thanks for your interesting response to this post. I’d never heard of glass marbles being used in spray cans. I grew up in a town where the local lemonade factory sealed bottles with a marble in a pinched neck until well into the 20th century, so I’m familiar with the green glass marbles from those bottles.
As to the clay marbles, I guess German origin is the most likely here in Northumberland – German ships will have been regular visitors to the local port in the early nineteenth century. That’s a lot of stories from a handful of marbles. Your 20,000 marbles could keep a lively imagination busy for a lifetime!
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April 14, 2020 at 9:08 am
Oh yes! The clickety-Clack sound in spray cans to this day is produced by glass marbles. You’ll remember that every time you hear that sound now. You’re welcome. Stay safe and God bless!
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May 13, 2020 at 2:58 pm
What wonderful treasures you find! ❤ And those pottery pieces in a later post. Magnificent!
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May 13, 2020 at 4:18 pm
The marbles and pieces of crockery are reminders of previous occupants of this piece of land. We find lots of stone, concrete, brick and broken glass to remind us of past lives too!
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