Kelly’s Collection of Marbles
Kelly
Draper of Llano is a retired professor of puppetry at
Lamar University in Beaumont. He performed with his puppets at symphony orchestra concerts all over the country, illustrating the music to children.
He did a puppet show several years at Dickens on the Strand in Galveston. Now he collects marbles.
“They're like little works of art,” says Kelly. “And they're all different.”
He knows about marbles. “There are two types of marbles: handmade and machine made. Machine made marbles were made after world war two. Most of the handmade marbles were made before that time and came to the United States by the doughboys from World War One. Marbles made by machine are just as collectible as those made by hand. There are people now who make handmade marbles so they're like the new contemporary things to invest in. Some go for thousands of dollars. I don't get those. Handmade are the more expensive ones.”
He says marbles have been made from stone, clay, glass and steel, even paper mache. They've been around for a long time.
“They've even found them in the pyramids. The things that make marbles expensive are the colors, the design and the clarity, kind of like what you look for in jewelry. Some are really shiny. And those are the ones you really look for.”
Kelly explains the game of marbles:
“There are several different games. Perhaps this one is the most well known. You put a group of marbles in the center of a circle and you have a larger marble called a shooter or taw and you try to hit the marbles out of the circle. There is a national marbles competition that draws entrants from all over the world.”
Some players carry their marbles in little bags. Kelly says even the bags are collectible and some people pay more attention to the bags than the marbles. Sometimes he goes to a gathering of the Texas Marble Collectors Association.
“They have two shows a year in April and October. It's a nice organization.”
Kelly started collecting marbles when a friend of his started collecting and told Kelly he should check it out.
“I didn't realize what a hornet's nest he was opening up. Now I have like a wall in the house full of marbles. Sometimes I'll buy a tubful at a garage or estate sale and it's fun to see what‘s there. Put a black light to them and it's surprising what you see.”
Kelly doesn't carry marbles in his pocket.
“You might put a scratch on them and that lowers the value.”