Meek Stock: No. 87 "Murietta"

General
No. 87, “Murietta” is an example of the “western girl/cowgirl” theme that appears to have been popular for some time in the pre-pro era. Meek’s “Sierra” (No. 86) is an obvious other example. Other tray examples include “A Strictly Western Product” from Rainier featuring a cowgirl on horseback; a Hauesermann tray for Rainier with a cowgirl on horseback pouring a beer for a cowboy. There is a blotter (probably a stock image by Meek or American Art Works) entitled “The Cow-Girl” for a distributor of Christian Feigenspan; a1906 cowgirl with whip design by Kaufmann & Strauss (the example we have appears to be a printer’s proof); as well as litho and trade cards, particularly for tobacco products. Meek’s offering appears to have been most popular with brewery and liquor companies as indicated below.

Although we can find numerous examples of Murietta as a surname (usually Hispanic) and placename (eg. The bedroom community of Murrieta, CA located in the center of the Los Angeles-San Diego mega-region, which is named for Juan Murrieta, a Californio ranchero who founded the town), Murietta as a first name appears to be elusive. We haven’t been able to find it as a first name (let alone female name) among the many sites that track names.

Unlike “Sierra” (No. 86) which we consider “Murietta’s” companion piece, the design reverts to more of the staged portrait depiction of the subject. We have been unable to find any original artwork that this design might have ben based on and searches for literary characters similarly have turned up no candidates which this design might be based on. Sahling has a February 1908 entry in his workbook for “Stock tray No. 87, Murietta.”

Size & Shape
All of the tray examples we’ve encountered of this design have been oval and feature black rims with gold advertising text. We have not encountered any with advertising text on the face of the tray. It also occurs as a curled corner sign with an oval image. We often encounter the curled corner sign with a broad green band around the main image. We believe these are over-painted to hide the advertising text (a not uncommon practice) but find it strange that these always seem to use green). Some of these curled corner signs have gold text and some white.

Hager & Price
Hager does discuss this design in his NABA article declaring its stock number to be 87, but that he “does not know her name.” Most of the examples we’ve encountered do not carry a title, as had become standard with Meek trays by this point in the catalog. In his date of introduction table he places this design in 1907, although we don’t often see that appearing on examples; he does include it in his catalog. Overall the prices for this design are surprisingly strong, with even non-brewery examples going for prices comparative to brewery trays for some other stock designs. In fact, the highest price we have recorded is for a liquor company. Even an unmarked stock sample, admittedly in excellent condition, went for over $500.