Lose one's marbles

Posted by Baceseras on August 22, 2009 at 20:43

In Reply to: Lose one's marbles posted by Myer Green on August 20, 2009 at 22:51:

: I know the glass mosaics to which you are referring, but I was certainly not referring to them at all. In the Gilbert collection there are very beautiful and highly crafted inlaid marble tables, to which I was referring.

: It was, in fact, the guide who referred to such tables as being the origin of the expression "He knew his marbles"

[Let's give that guide credit and assume he didn't believe his own rubbish. Then what he was doing, was teasing you. He was making up a story. The object, perhaps, was to make you say "Gosh!" and look again, more wide-eyed, at those marble table-tops. Later you could have second-thoughts and recognize the leg-pull - but you'd remember the table-tops, and the clever fellow that showed them to you. - Baceseras.]