Meek Stock: No. 88 "Colin"

General:
No. 88, 'Colin' is a departure from the Victorian Lady designs that proceed it, but this horse is not a return to early farm themes. Aside from a couple of designs that refer to hunting, this is only Tuscarora/M&B/Meek/American Art Works tray to reference popular sports of day; namely horse racing. Colin (1905 – 1932) was a champion American Thoroughbred racehorse who was undefeated in 15 starts (a rarity in the horse racing world). In 1907, he swept the major two-year-old stakes races including the Belmont Futurity and Champagne Stakes and was the consensus Horse of the Year. His three-year-old campaign was cut short by injury, but he was still Horse of the Year based on his three wins including the Belmont Stakes (which was already part of the Triple Crown). Colin, who was reported just days before to be hopelessly broken down and unable to ever race again, made a miraculous recovery to win the Belmont in one of the most dramatic series of events in horse racing history.

“Greeted by the enthusiastic cheers of tens of thousands of race-goers, whose idol he is, Colin, the great son of Commando, won the valuable Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park today. Not in many years, if ever, has there been such a demonstration of enthusiastic affection for a thoroughbred as that accorded Colin as he passed the finish line for his fourteenth consecutive victory, with never a defeat against him…he was pulled up apparently strong and sound and as he came back to the judge’s stand, the crowd of more than 30,000 persons rose to their feet and cheered repeatedly while the band played ‘Hail to the Chief’”.

The Montreal Gazette, 30 May 1909

One would think that this heroic feat captured the imagination of the folks at Meek following his win, but Sahling’s workbook shows that he had begun working on it in February 1908, several months before the Belmont Stakes.

Size & Shape
As an advertising tray, Colin proved less popular than all those pretty Victorian Ladies, at least on full sized tray, a few examples in are known as squares and a few convex pies. Rims are black with gold text; we have not encountered examples with advertising on the face. The design was quite popular as a tip tray however, as well as in the Dresden Art Plate format. We have also encountered a couple of round (unpressed tray) sign versions.

Hager & Price
Hager does mention this design, but speculates that it may be No. 76 (still unknown), but it is not included in his date table and clearly marked on the tray as No. 88. Because he was not sure of the stock number, he does not included it in his catalog. Prices for brewery and liquor examples tend to be strong. We have not encountered any tray examples with non-brewery advertising, only stock samples which tend be much weaker, although slightly better than stock samples of other designs. Quite a number of tip tray examples are from breweries, but we do not track tip tray prices.