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| Akro Agate Orange Slag Glass Vase ca. 1930's |
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| Vintage Akro Agate Orange Slag Glass Vase 1930's
Description: You are bidding on a beautiful vintage orange/white Slag glass vase made by the Akro Agate Company in the 1930's. It is marked: MADE IN U S A ( the n and the s are backwards) /Makers Mark- crow holding marbles in its feet flying through an A/ 658 on the bottom. It has a lovely flower on both sides and there are leaf scroll handles, orange swirls accent the vase.
Condition: It is in good condition: no cracks, just a few chips (3) to the top rim. Photos at AM Treasures.
Approximate measurements: 4 1/2" H, the top is 5" by 3" and the base is 3" by 2 1/4"
About the company: The Akro Agate Company, perhaps the best known of the marble manufacturers and certainly the most prolific during most of their career, was formed in 1910 in Akron, Ohio, by George T. Rankin and Gilbert C. Marsh. They used as their registered trademark, a crow holding marbles in its feet and beak and flying through a capital "A." For the first three years of the company's existence they simply bought and repackaged marbles made by M.F. Christensen and Son Company.
Meanwhile, M.F. Christensen's bookkeeper, Horace C. Hill, was embezzling money from his employer. Hill left the company in 1913 and joined up with Rankin and Marsh. In 1914, Hill moved the company to Clarksburg, West Virginia. Hill had applied for a patent on a marble-making machine in 1912 but it was at first rejected for being to similar to Martin Christensen's machine; perhaps Hill had stolen more than money from his employer. In 1915, a year following Akro Agate's relocation, and the same year in which Hill submitted a slightly different patent which was approved by the patent office, M.F. Christensen presented the courts with evidence of Hill's embezzlement. Hill paid back the $4,000 he had stolen, and died in early 1916, not too long after the death of Martin Christensen.
Akro Agate began marble production late in 1914. After Hill's demise, the company hired John F. Early, who made major improvements to Hill's machines. A major enhancement, the so-called Freese Improvement, was made in 1924 which allowed for more precision in the rounding of marbles and which did away with the tiny seams found at the poles of the marbles (often manifested on Corkscrews as fine feathering at or near the ends of the spiral). Previous to this as many as 20% of their marbles had to be rejected. A second improvement four years later more than doubled the production capacity of Akro's machines. The patent for this was approved in 1932, but by this time Early had left Akro Agate.
During the 1920s Akro Agate grew into the leading manufacturer of marbles thanks in large part to Early's innovations. Also, Arnold Fiedler, who had supplied Christensen Agate with its unique marble colors, worked for Akro Agate following his departure from Christensen (by some accounts prior to his employment with them), brought to the company his skills in glass mixing, which lent to Akro's marbles beautiful and vibrant eye appeal.
The 1930s saw some troubles for Akro Agate, as some of their key employees resigned at the beginning of the decade. Some of these went on the form the Master Marble Company. Sales of marbles declined everywhere toward the latter years of the decade and slowed even more in the subsequent decade. Akro began producing other glass objects during this period, including ashtrays, powder jars, jardinieres, vases, decorative flower pots, candlesticks, bowls, dishes, and more. These met with moderate success. Their line of colorful children's dishes did not sell well at first, but with the onset of America's involvement in World War II and the concomitant halt of imported Japanese toys they soon became more popular. However, this diversification did not pull Akro Agate from its decline, and by 1951 it closed down for good.
GL407AS10 |
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| Item GL0520 | 
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