above: small "Lilly" vase
no. 658 by Akro Agate
with makers mark.
Akro Agate Glass
from the
Glass Encyclopedia
Akro Agate Glass: A short explanationAkro Agate was set up in Akron, Ohio in 1911 by George T. Rankin, Gilbert Marsh, and Horace C. Hill. Rankin and Marsh had the idea of making marbles and selling them in boxes at Gilbert Marsh's shoe store. Horace Hill was an expert marble maker, and they set up their machinery over Marsh's shop in Akron. Three years later they were doing so well that they moved their business to a large building in Clarksburg, West Virginia. They operated for forty years, until 1951. They made only marbles until 1932, when the company expanded into a range of small items including children's tea sets, ashtrays, flower pots and novelties.
Akro Agate succeeded in the marble business largely because of the innovations in technology which they introduced. During the 1920s they invented, patented, and operated systems which made the process of making complex marble designs entirely by machine. Their machines produced the type of marble known as an Akro Agate spiral, and because the techniques combined patented machines and "secret" processes, they can be identified as Akro Agate marbles even today. Akro Agate marbles have become highly collectible, especially when they are still in their original packaging.
