M&B Stock No. 39 "Pope Leo XIII"

General
No. 39 is a portrait of Pope Leo XIII, the second longest serving pope up until that time. He passed away in July 1903, so we speculate that this was a memorial tray created in mid-1903. It does not appear in any of the catalogs in our possession; however, JF Meek mentions this design specifically in a 1903 Printers Ink article. It does appear in the 1903 price list as “No. 39, Pope Leo XIII. At this point, a new source starts to become relevant with regard to dating Meek & Beach trays—the work books of Adolph Sahling. Sahling was a lithographer who joined Tuscarora in 1899 and continued to work for the successor companies for the next 46 years. Sahling worked on a wide range of pieces until he became foreman of the Display Department in early 1921. Sahling’s daughter Margaret, who was a librarian in Coshocton, compiled a summary of his workbooks in timeline format. This summary contains an entry for “His Holiness Pope Leo” in January 1903. It is unclear if he completed the work in January or just started it; however, it safe to conclude that this design was available for production by mid-1903.

Leo was well known for his intellectualism and his attempts to define the position of the Catholic Church with regard to modern thinking. In his famous 1891 encyclical Rerum novarum, Pope Leo outlined the rights of workers to a fair wage, safe working conditions, and the formation of trade unions, while affirming the rights of property and free enterprise. Supposedly this portrait is based on a painting by Amedo Simonetti, an Italian painter primarily known for his “orientalist” scenes (middle east would be more accurate) although he was also known to depict courtiers, musketeers and church officials in lavish settings. We’ve found a portrait painting that looks very similar but have been unable to confirm it is by Simonetti.

Interestingly, there is another Pope Leo design that we’ve only seen pictures of that appears in an ovalish SFT sign version (sans advertising) and matching Vienna Art Plate (VAP). In this version, Pope Leo wears much simpler white clerical gear, not the formal regalia in the M&B version. This alternate Leo is attributed to H.D. Beach, possibly because of the VAP version—an invention attributed to Beach (although copied by most of the other major tray players)—and the sign version being in an odd size/shape from anything else M&B produced.

Shape & Rim & Ad Text
Known tray examples are all oval with the low pie shaped rim and rolled edge. All sport a faux marble rim design. Advertising text usually was printed on the back of the tray instead of one the face; one exception is the Warninger & Houthmaker tray which features black text on the rim. We’ve seen one sign example featuring an oval image, but it appeared to either have been unfinished or was originally framed in wood, which was missing.

Hager & Price
This image is not discussed or included in Hager. Not unexpectedly, most advertising examples are non-breweries with a surprising number being for shoe retailers. Prices for these are relatively low, even for examples in good condition. The lone brewery auction example we’ve seen (T Briggs) went for over $1,000 several years ago for an example that was only in “good” condition.