Meek Stock No. 81 "Rosamond"

General Comments
No. 81 "Rosamond" appears in the midst of a flurry of “Victorian Lady” designs from the upper 70's to mid-90's. Most of these appear to have been very popular with numerous examples. But Rosamond seems to have overshadowed by her sisters. Like Annabelle (No. 65) and Mildred (No. 80) she appears in profile, but otherwise is similar to the other “Victorian Ladies.” So, what accounts for her lack of popularity? It may be as simple as the other contemporary designs were so popular, she just got overlooked.

The name Rosamond is a girl's name of German origin meaning "horse protection". Later Latin interpretations render a more pleasant meaning of “pure rose” or “rose of the world.” It reached the height of its popularity in 1910 and has been in serious decline ever since in the United States currently at #2306 in popularity for female names.

We have been unable to find a prior painting on which this design might be based, and we are inclined to think that by this time Meek has stopped purchasing artwork to copied for lithographed advertising pieces. Several articles from Coshocton newspapers indicate that Jasper Meek exited the company in 1908 due to health concerns. Literature provides some possible options as there were a number of 19th century and early 20th century short story collections with Rosamond in the title, including The Rosamond Tales: Princess Series by Cuyler Reynolds that was published in 1907. We have not been able to see any of these volumes or even find a summation to determine any connection. More likely, the reference may be to “the fair Rosamond”, daughter of nobleman Walter de Clifford and mistress of England’s 12th century King Henry II. 14th century sources suggest that she may have been poisoned by Henry’s wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine.

Although Sahling was fairly busy working on stock designs for trays in 1907 (his journal lists five that year), Rosamond was not among them. Still given that his stock designs for trays that year ranged from No. 70 (Good Friends) to No. 85 (Griselda), it’s fairly safe to conclude that this design was introduced in 1907.

Size & Shape
As a tray, No. 81 only shows up as convex pie, although that’s admittedly based on a very limited number of examples. These trays all sport black rims with gold advertising text; to date we have not seen one with advertising text on the face of the tray. We’ve actually seen this design more frequently as a curled corner sign, again with the black and gold rim/text. Although a number of contemporary Meek designs have corresponding tip tray versions, we have never encountered one for this design.

Hager & Price
Hager does not discuss this design, nor does it appear in his catalog, and he even omits it in his date range table. One might expect it to show up as one of the nine Dresden Art Plate designs he highlights, most of which also appear as full-sized trays in the range from No. 76 to No. 93 but it does not. Given the limited number of examples it’s hard to draw firm conclusions, prices for both brewery and non-brewery trays are better than average.