M&B Stock No. 47 "Theodore Roosevelt"

General
We expect this tray was produced in correlation with Roosevelt’s 1904 presidential campaign against Alton Parker. It was one of the design J.F. Meek specifically referenced (as well as the Parker one) in his 1903 interview with Printers Ink. In the yellow band surrounding the image it states “After John S Sergeant’s Painting. Reproduced by courtesy of Collier’s Weekly. Copyright 1903 by Collier’s Weekly. The Meek & Beach Co. Coshocton, Ohio.” This is one of the few stock designs where the M&B “signature” is explicitly included (it did more commonly appear on non-stock M&B trays). There were not significant differences in Roosevelt and Parker’s policy positions and the election was primarily based on their personalities. Roosevelt won handily carrying all of the northern and western state; Parker only captured states in the south, even losing his home state of New York. The 1904 election marks the last time M&B/Meek produced trays with political figures.

Brewery examples of this tray are very rare and, in all likelihood, it had a rather short “shelf life” as a stock tray. There are however quite a number of different non-brewery issuers that used this design—perhaps the most diverse group for any stock tray, but certainly the most up to this point. They include: tea, soda, ice cream, newspapers, clothing, shoes, banks, general stores, liquor and real estate.

Shape & Rim & Ad Text
Known tray examples are all oval with the low pie shaped rim and rolled edge. All sport an elaborate rim with roses and two vignette panels at 3 and 9 o’clock; one shows Roosevelt on a horse (perhaps evoking Roosevelt’s Rough Rider past in the Spanish-American War) and the other standing in a military uniform. There is also a small banner on the rim at 6 o’clock with the title “Theodore Roosevelt.” Advertising text appears either on the face or the tray or the back. There are also a few examples of narrow SFT signs featuring a faux woodgrain “frame”. Similarly, these have examples with advertising text on the “frame” and on the face.

There are also a number of TOC signs, both bearing advertising and not, as well as a “Dresden Art Plate” (DAP) version (Lohse) with a 1905 calendar printed on it, suggesting this design carried into 1905 (the generally acknowledged year Meek introduced the DAP. There is an ad from Printer’s Ink of June 1904 touting M&B advertising specialties that explicitly calls out this design: “For twenty-five cents we will mail a beautiful copy, on enameled metal, of a genuine French china plate, showing Sargeant;s portrait of President Roosevelt, so artistically executed that it will pass for china.”

Hager & Price
Hager does not discuss this particular design, but it is included in his catalog. Before checking our records we were inclined to consider this design’s scarcity as Uncommon; however, we were surprised to discovered we’d encountered far more examples than we recalled. This is most likely because there are so few brewery examples and quite a smorgasbord of non-brewery issuers. Unfortunately, the brewery examples were encountered before we started systematically tracking prices, but we expect they commanded a pretty penny. The non-brewery and stock samples are a highly varied bag. Some examples go for high prices we’d expect from brewery versions and others relatively cheap. We expect this has something to do with being a collectible for political memorabilia enthusiasts.