This beautiful and thought-provoking reference explores the close relationships among contemporary studio art glass marbles, spheres, and orbs and their predecessors, the marbles of childhood, as well as areas of significant divergence. Over 900 gorgeous color photos display the vast range available today, including handmade and machine-made marbles, edition types, regular stock, open edition production stock, prototypes, limited editions, experimental works, and studio glass. Many rare and historical examples are shown._x000D_The thorough and engaging text provides a history of the studio glass movement, manufacturing processes, artists' marks, essential information on building and caring for a collection, and methods of valuing items in a collection. Also included are a glossary, a bibliography, an index, and values in the captions. All glass fanciers will learn about this new generation of modern styles. AUTHOR: Mark Block has been collecting, dealing in, researching, and writing about marbles for many years. He has written other books on marbles for Schiffer Publishing.