Meek Stock No. 74 "The Dice Throwers"

General Comments
Games of chance and gambling feature in a number of designs starting with No. 46, “A Close Game”; however, they mostly involve card games. No. 74, involves a number of western characters engaged in some sort of dice game instead. Dice and their forerunners are the oldest human gaming implement. Although the specific origins are unknown, it is theorized that they developed from the practice of fortune telling. The gathered characters all have associations with the American west, although different aspects of it—fur trapper/explorer, Civil War refuge, cowboy and town settler. Perhaps its an allegory for which one will determine the future of the American west?

This may be the first “inspired by” design Meek produced, instead of lithographic reproductions of specific art works. In this case, the scene almost directly recreates Die Würfelspieler, a 1885 painting by Claus Meyer, except Meek has replaced the Europe characters, way of dress, and architecture with American western ones. The scene and action are the same and if you look carefully, you can see that the individuals themselves (aside from their clothing) are reproduced fairly faithfully in the Meek design.

Size & Shape
We have only encountered No. 74 as an oblong size/shaped tray, all of which have a brown rim overprinted with a simple art nouveau pattern. They also feature the green/gray edge found on No. 73. Advertising text appears on the face of the tray in the upper right, where we’ve seen some variations. On the C A Feisst version this appears within a picture frame on the wall. On Pett’s there is no frame and the text simply appears on the wall. In both cases, text appears on the bottle sitting on the table.

Hager & Price
Hager does not discuss this design other than to place its introduction in 1906; he does include it in his catalog (appears to be the Feisst example). The few examples we’ve seen, aside from a stock sample, have all been for liquor dealers or producers. Prices for this have been solid but not spectacular. The lone stock sample version went for a surprisingly strong $150 given its slightly below average condition.