Figure 1.--This is a rather idealized game of marbles with the boys wearing matching sailor suits. It looks to be a commercial post card rather than a studio portrait, although there is no commercial marks, but it does have a Crewe studio imprint. It was mailed as a New Years card on January 1, 1907.

We know that shooting marbles was popular in England, but we have few details at this time. We do not know when marbles first became popular. We suspct that there were some social class conventions. In all the public school (meaning exclclusive private school) stories we have read, we have bot noted marbles being played. We do know that the world's long running reguar marble matches are held in England. Interestingly, marbles appear to have been used to help sell boys clothing. A HBC reader reports, "I found a clear glass marble approximately 1.25 inches in diameter. A metalic tab in the center reads as following: 'Samuel Brothers 50 Ludgate hill London boys suits size 16-45 Pattent'. If you could give me an idea of its age it would appreciated." Hopefully some HBC readers will be able to date this marble and advertising appraoch. HBC would guess the early 20th century, but we do not have any information to confirm this. An English reader writes, "Conkers and marbles were seasonal activities. Marbles were played all over Europe and the game seems to have been played to basically the same rules. To win you had to hit the biggest marble and collect all the marbles in play. It was a mini version of of Adult balling gamesv like bowls. In these games the winner is the one gets his ball nearest to the marker. In marbles you can start with one and end up with hundreds if you are aood shooter. There were glass marbles and ceramic marbles. Beautiful looking ones were held in high status and to win one of these was glorious and everyone thought you were a champian. Chipped marbles also had status. It meant that it was a winner and had been played Marblest would last a few weeks then cricket would start and we played cricket all day long. Naughty boys would fire marbles from their catapults at birds or targets and each other!"

Created: 3:03 PM 10/25/2008
Last updated: 9:44 PM 5/26/2013