All About Pocket Knives

They were famous for their sheath knives, but their contract made pocket knives seem to be incredibly rare. I believe I have only seen one original Marbles pocket knife in the infamous sunfish/elephant toe pattern, but certainly there were more made in different patterns? I seem to remember seeing a catalog page somewhere but cannot remember where now. Either way, folks around here have some incredible collections and I would love to see any old Marbles pocket knives that are out there, and perhaps tang stamp shots if you can get some? I recall most of them except the big patterns were marked MSA or something like that, but again I've never seen one. Thanks for sharing!

There are two catalog pages reproduced in Levine's Guide on page 349 in LG-IV.

Levine stated the knives, other than the Safety Folding Hunters, were made by Case Brothers of Little Valley, New York, and they have Case Brothers pattern numbers. The knives were available from about 1903 - 1908, according to Levine. Marbles also imported some pocketknives from Germany. Other knives were made by Union Cutlery were offered until about 1915, again according to Levine.

I have read speculation that the knives on the catalog pages were never actually made available or sold.

I have read that every pearl handled Marbles sunfish out there are fakes.

I've also read that is not true. There have been vehement discussions here and at BF over that issue.

Whatever the facts, Marbles marked pocketknives seen not to be in public existence, except for the few ultra-expensive pearl sunfish examples and that would seem to be the one a faker would most likely reproduce.

Anyone ever seen a Marbles 88 congress, a 5111 folding hunter, a 5294 cigar, or any of the other Case contract knives depicted on page 349 in LG-IV?

I know I haven't. But then, I've not been searching for them either.

Charlie Noyes

Thanks for the info Charlie! I have been looking for one for a long time now and just can't seem to find anyone who has even seen a real one. I wouldn't be surprised about most if not all being fakes, as they say; where there's rarity and value there are fakes. That said, that catalog page continues to be intriguing, I wonder if in the end Marble's just sold those knives with the standard Case tang stamps?

You may want to pursue this thread:

http://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/kni ... 35&t=26443

Thank you! Darn I did a search too, I don't know how I missed it, a mod can go ahead and delete this thread, I didn't mean to double the topic.