 | |
| Established | 2001 |
|---|---|
| Location | York, Nebraska |
| Type | Art, Collectables, and Antique museum |
| Founder | Lee Batterton |
Lee's Legendary Marbles and Collectables is a museum in York, Nebraska. [1] The museum specializes in displaying, storing and sometimes selling parts of a toy marble collection Lee Batterton amassed over 70 years. [2] In 2023, it was officially recognized as the World's Largest Collection of Marbles. [3]
The museum was founded in 2001 by Lee Batterton, who began collecting marbles in 1954 [3] in the United States and later continued while living in Germany. [4] He was raised in Oklahoma where his collection began, but moved to Germany for his work as a grain elevator repairman. [4] Germany was the first country to create a way of mass-producing marbles, so German marbles are sought after by collectors. [5] [6] Marble production in America began in Akron, Ohio, in 1884, and became mass-produced in the same place in 1900 [7] with the help of Samuel Dyke. [8] Collecting marbles continued to rise in popularity throughout America after the turn of the 20th century. [9] An article written in 1936 about marbles in America mentions the popularity among children of collecting them, an early documentation of the practice. [10]
Lee was born on April 18, 1933, and died on March 8, 2024, in York, Nebraska. [11] He created the museum on recommendation of a fellow marble-collecting friend in 2001. [12]
Lee's varied collection of marbles has been recognized as the World's Largest Collection of Marbles by the World Record Academy, consisting of over 700,000 marbles. [3] Many of the marbles housed in the museum are kept in display cases, [4] but Lee claims that when he began collecting marbles he would store them in jars. [13] Many of the less valuable marbles are still kept in large glass jars at the museum today. [14]
The hobby of collecting includes seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, and maintaining items that are of interest to an individual collector. Collections differ in a wide variety of respects, most obviously in the nature and scope of the objects contained, but also in purpose, presentation, and so forth. The range of possible subjects for a collection is practically unlimited, and collectors have realised a vast number of these possibilities in practice, although some are much more popular than others.
A collectable is any object regarded as being of value or interest to a collector. Collectable items are not necessarily monetarily valuable or uncommon. There are numerous types of collectables and terms to denote those types. An antique is a collectable that is old. A curio is something deemed unique, uncommon, or weird, such as a decorative item. A manufactured collectable is an item made specifically for people to collect.
Charles Townley FRS was a wealthy English country gentleman, antiquary and collector, a member of the Towneley family. He travelled on three Grand Tours to Italy, buying antique sculpture, vases, coins, manuscripts and Old Master drawings and paintings. Many of the most important pieces from his collection, especially the Townley Marbles are now in the British Museum's Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities. The marbles were overshadowed at the time, and still today, by the Elgin Marbles.
Lee Oscar Lawrie was an American architectural sculptor and an important figure in the American sculpture scene preceding World War II. Over his long career of more than 300 commissions Lawrie's style evolved through Modern Gothic, to Beaux-Arts, Classicism, and, finally, into Moderne or Art Deco.
A marble is a small spherical object often made from glass, clay, steel, plastic, or agate. They vary in size, and most commonly are about 13 mm in diameter. These toys can be used for a variety of games called marbles, as well being placed in marble runs or races, or created as a form of art. They are often collected, both for nostalgia and for their aesthetic colors.
A dollhouse or doll's house is a toy house made in miniature. Since the early 20th century dollhouses have primarily been the domain of children, but their collection and crafting is also a hobby for many adults. English-speakers in North America commonly use the term dollhouse, but in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries the term is doll's house. They are often built to put dolls in.
Hungry Hungry Hippos is a tabletop game made for 2–4 players, produced by Hasbro, under the brand of its subsidiary, Milton Bradley. The idea for the game was published in 1967 by toy inventor Fred Kroll and it was introduced in 1978. The objective is for each player to collect as many marbles as possible with their toy hippopotamus model. The game was, at one point, marketed under the "Elefun and Friends" banner, along with Elefun, Mouse Trap and Gator Golf.
A music box or musical box is an automatic musical instrument in a box that produces musical notes by using a set of pins placed on a revolving cylinder or disc to pluck the tuned teeth of a steel comb. The popular device best known today as a "music box" developed from musical snuff boxes of the 18th century and were originally called carillons à musique. Some of the more complex boxes also contain a tiny drum and/or bells in addition to the metal comb.
A Black doll is a doll of a black person. Black doll manufacture dates back to the 19th century, with representations being both realistic and stereotypical. More accurate, mass-produced depictions are manufactured today as toys and adult collectibles.
Prince Don Alessandro Raffaele Torlonia, Prince of Fucino, Prince of Civitella-Cesi, Duke of Ceri was an Italian nobleman of the House of Torlonia. He was the son of Giovanni Torlonia, 1st Prince di Civitella-Cesi (1754–1829).
The Lansdowne Heracles is a Roman marble sculpture of about 125 CE. Today it is in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum's Getty Villa on the Malibu Coast, Los Angeles. The statue represents the hero Heracles as a beardless Lysippic youth grasping the skin of the Nemean lion with his club upon his shoulder. The work was discovered in 1790 in Tivoli, Italy, on the site of Hadrian's Villa, where many fine Hadrianic copies and pastiches of Greek sculptures had been discovered since the 16th century. Today, the sculpture is considered to be an example of Roman-era improvisations on the Greek sculptural style of the fourth century BCE rather than a copy of a specific Greek original.
An Antique toy show is one of several toy shows held throughout the United States, usually on an annual basis, that is devoted to the exhibition, for sale, of antique toys, dolls and collectible paraphernalia. Toy shows are generally regional in nature, and cater to a certain geographic area of the country. The larger shows, such as the Miami Antique Toy Show and the Chicago Toy Show and the Greater Boston Antique and Collectible Toy Show encompass a broader clientele.
Sideshow Collectibles is an American specialty manufacturer of movie, film, television and collectible action figures, statues, and high end pieces. Sideshow's licenses include Star Wars, DC Comics, Marvel Comics, The Lord of the Rings, Disney, Harry Potter, Masters of the Universe, Pokémon, Dragon Ball Z, Street Fighter, Game of Thrones, and Star Trek.
Martin Molin is a Swedish composer, producer, multi-instrumentalist, inventor and constructor. He is a member of the folktronica and post-rock band Wintergatan, and previously a member of Detektivbyrån. He grew up at Kronoparken in Karlstad, Sweden. From 2017 he lived and worked in southern France, where he built a custom music studio and workshop, but in April 2022 he moved back to Sweden.
Mel Birnkrant is an American toy designer and collector. He is known for his extensive collection of Mickey Mouse and other toys of pre-World War II comics characters, and for his creation of toys such as the Outer Space Men and Baby Face.
TheNethercutt Collection is a multi-storied museum and car collection complex located in Sylmar, California. It was founded by J.B. Nethercutt in 1971 and its centerpiece is the prestigious automobile collection of the Nethercutt-Richards family that contains over 250 cars, nearly all of which J.B. originally collected and owned. It is widely regarded as one of the greatest car museums in the world.§
Martin Frederick Christensen was a Danish inventor and businessman. He is most known as the inventor of an automated machine that could manufacture glass marbles and founder of M.F. Christensen and Son Company.
Eloise Andrews Kruger was an American miniature collector from Lincoln, Nebraska, who was known for her collection of historically-accurate American miniatures.
The Torlonia Collection is a private art collection of 620 Ancient Greek and Roman art works assembled by the noble Torlonia family of Rome, Italy. It has been called "the greatest private collection of ancient Roman antiquity" by archaeologist Darius Arya. Around 180 pieces are busts, one of the largest collections of Roman portraiture in the world.
Keith Martin was an American abstract and surrealist painter and collagist during the 20th century. His paintings are in a multitude of art museums and collections, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, The National Gallery of Art, and the Museum of Modern Art.
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