Keith Glein
This pure Black float has an over-sized Kita 北 stamp on its ID seal. In fact, this ID seal is a whopping 2 1/2 inches in diameter.
I saw this float when a friend of mine visited the Hokuyo Glass Factory in Japan. This pure black glass float was sitting in the background in some photos that they had taken inside the Hokuyo gift shop after they toured the glass factory. I asked them about this float and they told me they could purchase it on my behalf the next time they went there. Shortly before they left Japan they were able to make another trip back to Hokuyo and purchase this float.
It's a tank of a float. It's very heavy for its size.
It's all black, even the seal is black. Light does not pass through this float.
It measures about 43 inches around the equator or about 13 2/3 inches wide. It measures 15 inches tall.
This float was produce in 2023 by the Hokuyo Glass Factory as a special item for their gift store.
This float is marked with WP #128 'Nemuro Sa' stamped on the seal. WP #128 is classified as a rare mark.
The light green glass ball measures about 3 inches in diameter.
Lime Green Roller with tons of bubbles plus it has some remnants of barnacles.
This roller measures 4 3/4 inches long.
It's is one of three light amber rollers I bought as a lot from Japan in June of 2023.
Lime Green Roller with lot of bubbles.
This roller measures 4 3/4 inches long.
This roller is one of three light amber rollers I bought as a lot from Japan in June of 2023.
This light Amber Roller is a real heartbreaker. It has a long crack on the side of the barrel.
It measures 4 3/4 inches long.
This roller is one of three light amber rollers I bought as a lot. Cautionary tale of buying float from Japan. This seller didn't include a photo showing the huge crack.
Classic Double Sausage float that has a groove around the middle of the barrel of the float.
This float measures about 5 1/4 inches long.
It's one of two double sausages that I purchased in Japan in June of 2023.
Double Sausage float that measures about 5 1/8 inches long.
It's one of two double sausages that I purchased in Japan in June of 2023.
Green Seal on a smokey gray colored float.
This float measures 37 1/2 inches in circumference or about 12 inches in diameter.
It's quite hard to find a Cranberry Dot with mark WP #171 'Asahi' 旭. In all the years I've been looking, I've found two of them. This one has the best stamp of the two that I've got in my collection.
It's a nicely netted float that measures about 2 1/2 inches in diameter.
This float was purportedly found by Woody Woodward while float hunting in Japan with Walt Pich. I purchased this float in 2023 from a private collector who had bought it many years ago on eBay from "2fishin2" (aka Woody).
Very hard to find large float that has both an Amber Green Seal and an Amber Green ID Seal.
There are also some lovely amber swirls running throughout the float.
The mark on the ID seal is WP #3 'Kita' 北. It's lightly stamped.
This float has excellent provenance having come out of the first container of large floats that Michelle & Shane Konkle imported from Japan. I bought this float from Michelle in 2023.
Mark #39 is 'Mata Masa'. The symbol on top of the stamp is 'Mata' 又. The symbol on the bottom is 'Masa' 正.
According to Walt Pich there were two examples of this mark known to the collection community at the time his 'Marks' book was published in 2009. One found in Alaska and another in Japan.
This could be the third known example of mark WP #39 Mata Masa. These are the only three that I'm aware of but there may be more of them out there.
I purchased this float in Japan in May of 2023.
Mark WP #196 'Kami' 神 is not a rare mark, it's classified as uncommon. But finding a WP #196 Kami 神 mark on a 2 inch float is rare. In fact, this 2 inch float is the only float in collections that has a WP #196 Kami 神 mark.
The float measures about 7 inches in circumference or about 2 1/2 inches in diameter.