Unknown Stock 'Julia Marlowe"'

General
Julia Marlowe (1865-1950), born Sarah Frances Frost, was an English born, American romantic actress best known for her interpretations of William Shakespeare plays. Marlowe’s family immigrated to the United States in 1870 and purportedly, her interest in Shakespeare began when she was roughly ten years old and acquired a volume of Shakespeare’s works. In 1879 she was cast in her first role in a local production of Gilbert & Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore at age 12, which earned her entry into the Cincinnati Grand Opera House company. She started with smaller roles including her first Shakespeare roles in Romeo and Juliet and Twelfth Night. After a number of years in regional and touring companies, she made her Broadway debut in 1895 and went on to appear in more than 70 Broadway productions.

Although she performed in a number of Shakespeare plays, several indicated in the rim vignette window (above), her greatest role is considered to be Viola in Twelfth Night. She also performed in many non-Shakespearean roles, many more well-known today than When Knighthood Was in Flower, a stage adaptation of Charles Major’s debut novel, although it was quite popular at the time.

The play premiered on Broadway in 1901 and in a revival in 1904 and was then a financial success on national tour. We believe this provides a clue as to the likely date this design was produced. In 1904, Marlowe began a long and productive collaboration with actor E. H. Sothern, and they embarked on the first of several tours across the United States.

Marlowe was known to have sold “merch” at her shows, including these trays. We suspect that these trays were produced for a tour in 1904 or 1905 shortly after the 1904 revival of When Knighthood Was in Flower, with which she was so recently associated and explaining the inclusion of Mary Tudor along with the far more well-known Shakespeare roles.

Although remembered today as one of the great actresses of the early 20th century stage, Marlowe had her fair share of critics who believed her fame owed more to her beauty than her skills as an actress. Never-the-less, Marlowe and Sothern continued to tour, performing many other Shakespeare plays including Romeo and Juliet, Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet, and Anthony and Cleopatra, until Marlowe became ill in 1924 and she retired from the stage. After Sothern died in 1933, Marlowe became something of a recluse, dying at the Plaza Hotel in New York where she lived.

Shape & Rim & Ad Text
All examples that we have seen are oval, and with the exception of the Cape Brewery & Ice example, none of them have any advertising text. We believe these trays were not produced with the intent of carrying advertising, but rather as a promotional item for Ms. Marlowe herself, as indicated. Our theory on the Cape Brewery & Ice example is that someone at the brewery saw Ms. Marlowe during one of her many repertoire tours and purchased a few trays which they then had imprinted by a third-party printer (we have encountered an ad for such third-party printing specific to trays in an ~1905 trade magazine). Marlowe is known to have played in St Louis on several of her tours and to have dined at Tony Faust’s restaurant.

Although we have never encountered an example with a manufacturer indicated, we suspect this design was produced in Coshocton by either Meek & Beach, or the H.D. Beach Company, both of whom favored oval trays during the suspected timeframe. Both companies were fonder of using the vignette windows on the rim than the other major manufacturers.

Hager & Price
This design is not reflected in Hager’s Coshocton catalog, most probably because examples are unattributed. Prices range from the low double figures for below average examples, to upper double figures for better than average examples. A few exceptional examples have achieved low triple figures. We have not encountered a sale for a Cape Brewing example.