M&B Stock No. 30

General
There is a curious gap between stock No. 24 and No. 30 in the identified catalog and none of the known price lists or M&B catalogues reference or give any hint what these designs might have been. It is reasonable to assume they all either sported drape rims or were smaller than full-sized trays (since the technique to resize an image was still a couple of years off). There are a few designs that have never been identified with a stock number (for example the landscape oriented oval with white swans) that might fit here but can’t be confirmed at this time. For some reason, this design seems to have been particularly popular with California breweries, although breweries in other parts of the country are represented as well. Among non-breweries there seems to be both wide geographic and business representation.

M&B 1903 catalog description says: “Tea Tray No. 30 is just what the illustration here shown indicates, a wonderfully natural picture of an unusually handsome face. A face whose beauty of outline and expression of buoyant life is seldom duplicated in the same century. As a representative face and style of 20th century art and beauty, this art metal tray will stand as a criterion for future generations to judge of this generation’s work and ideals.” This design is listed in the 1903 price list as “Lady with Japanese Cape.”

Shape & Rim & Ad Text
Known tray examples are all oval with the low pie shaped rim and rolled edge. Most tray versions show up sporting a green drape rim; we have encountered a version (Guggenheim) with a plain red rim with panels on the side with small bottle images such as were common on Beach trays. Unlike other images from the mid-teens and low twenties, M&B seems to have dropped the narrow oval SFT sign versions with faux woodgrain rims. Advertising text (and sometime symbols or logos) appear both on the rim usually in black or gold text, or on the face of the tray, usually with gold text or script.

Hager & Price
Hager mentions No. 30 in passing when discussing early M&B trays with drape rims that have stock numbers but never manufacturer information. He does include a picture in his catalog. There are a fair number of brewery examples and prices are strong, as they are for liquor/whiskey trays. For the stock samples and most non-brewers’ prices are modest for examples in good condition. Like similar trays, the drape rim color tended to fade in contrast to the image on the tray itself.