Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(Aus.) the best, the favourite, the most admired; usu. in phr. just the glassy marble, etc, exactgly as required, wholly satisfactory.

1898		Mackay Mercury (Qld) 5 Nov. 1/4: [advert] I have been appointed local agent for these favourite first class Bicycles. Just the glassy marble at last.
1901		Eve. Star (Boulder, WA) 23 Aug. 3/1: One must know the slang of the hour, and not to be astonished if in praising an acquaintance for his cuteness you are met with the queer encomium [...] ‘he's just the glassy marble,’ ‘the chipped agate,’ or ‘the juicy onion’.
1902		Queensland Fargo (Brisbane) 18 Dec. 17/1: Marshall’s yacht, Lila, was going great guns on Sunday. The Lila is just the ‘glassey marble’.
1903		Eve. News (Sydney) 3 Dec. 8/2: We badly want a hard hitter in the eleven to represent Australia [...] I think with a bit of luck be would be just the glassy agate.
1903		Mudgee Guardian (NSW) 7 Dec. 2/7: [headline] Just the Glassy Marble.
1905		Bulletin (Sydney) 21 Sept. 40/2: A M.C. is a proud position – ’n’ bein’ the glassy agate o’ the company the other blokes gets ’orrible jealous, ’n’ yer got ter be able ter take yer own part; that’s all that’s in it.
1906		E. Dyson Fact’ry ’Ands 4: Billy’s the pure glassey.
1906		Gadfly (Adelaide) 14 Mar. The filly was just the agate – a boshter piece.
1906		E. Dyson Fact’ry ’Ands 166: Oh, they’re [i.e. trousers] jist the glassy.
1906		Sun. Times (Perth) 12 Aug. 4/7: Every donah surrenders ’er ’eart / As soon as me phiz-og they look on. / I’m the dead glassy marble, What oh!
1907		Euroa Advertiser 26 Apr. n.p.: When a teacher asks him [...] the boy never thinks of answering that [a book] is ‘just the glassy peb’.
1907		Brisbane Courier 29 May 6/3: ‘Just the glassy marble’ [...] ‘Just the glassy alley,’ ‘Just the juicy chop,’ ‘Just the blob,’ ‘Just the shiny shilling,’ ‘Just the plonk’ are only a few of its offshoots.
1908		Bulletin (Sydney) 12 Nov. 20/1: It is a Job – a Big Job – my Sistren, but you will see it through, / For you are the Glassy Agates – the Last Words in People-saving.
1908		Sun (Kalgoorlie, WA) 2 Aug. 1/1: They Say [...] That a junior Boulder electrical switcher considered himself the glossiest glassy at the recent rinking carnival.
1910		Sun. Times (Perth) 30 Jan. 3rd sect. 1/3: As a show-spruiker, Bill was (and is) the glassy. As a good white pal, B. has few equals in the region.
1911		‘Steele Rudd’ Dashwoods 25: I said it would be just the glassy marble – the sort of thing I’d like to be at.
1920		Daily Tel. & North Murchison &Pilbarra Gaz. (WA) 4 Nov. 2/7: He flopped a pair of wings on me. I moved my shoulders and said ‘how do they fit me?’ ‘Great,’ he said ‘Just the glassy alley!’ .
1931		Truth (Sydney) 26 Apr. 5/1: Frank McMillan's boys are just the glassy agate [...] flattening their rivals into the ground early in the second spasm.
1935		Morn. Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld) 8 Mar. 8/5: The man who thinks he is just the glassy marble is the one who gets on in the world.
1938		Western Mail (Perth) 12 May 10/3: The more I saw of him the more I became convinced he was what in our vernacular we would call ‘just the glassy alley’.
1943		World’s News (Sydney) 20 Mar. 17/2: He'll be just the glassy agate and a scullery VC / If he'll wash the meal utensils- with aloof alacrity.
1951		Cusack & James Come In Spinner (1960) 300: Low profits and quick turnover, and this is the glassy marble.