"Czech" Glass Target Ball with Star

Our Price: £500.00

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Glass Target Ball from the 1880's

Superb apple green - light pattern variety - extremely rare
This ball has a four pointed star, engraved on the side, probably by acid etching, and revealing the letter A in the centre

Meaning? Who knows, Annie Oackley trophy? Christmas decoration conversion?

Those are the so-called "CZECH" balls, even though Czechoslovakia did not exist when these balls were made. The area was called Bohemia and belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire until 1918 and was predominantly inhabited by German-speaking people.
The balls were found only recently by a German dealer in the town of Gablonz, a glass-producing area for the last 300 years. These target balls are known in yellow-green, apple-green, amethyst, Prussian blue and black glass, in a strong pattern and a weak pattern.
According to the information that is available to me, two respectively three of the black glass and Prussian-blue balls are known, six of the amethyst and 14 of the apple green.

ref: http://www.glswrk-auction.com/215.htm