M&B Stock No. 20

that we recognized from a non-stock tray from Fredericksburg Brewery of San Jose, CA (which is also unsigned), which was issued by Kaufmann & Strauss.

Shape & Rim & Ad text
Known tray examples are all oval with the low pie shaped rim and rolled edge. All sport a red drape rim design (although they often have faded to more of a pink color), so this may be the first stock tray produced after the creation of Meek & Beach in 1901. Advertising text (and sometime symbols or logos) appear both on the rim and on the face of the tray. There are also a few examples of narrow SFT signs featuring a faux woodgrain “frame”. Similarly, these have examples with advertising text on the “frame” and on the face.

Hager & Price
Hager includes her in his catalog, but she isn’t discussed in his article or included in his date table. We estimate that it was introduced some time in 1902 as the advertising text from the Fairgrieve’s tray has 1902 included. The few brewery examples tend to go for some pretty heady prices. Prices are low, even for examples in good condition, for the stock samples and most non-brewers, although there are exceptions.

General
Designs featuring young children were fairly common in the early years of the Coshocton catalog, which seems odd given that we primarily think of these as being used to advertise breweries. However, early catalogs from Meek & Beach clearly marketed these as “tea trays” where such images seem more appropriate. No. 20 is the last design in the catalog to feature a young child until No. 56 (Purity) and No. 57 (A Lady of Quality) some 3 to 4 years later. We speculate that this is because breweries (and to a lesser extend distilleries) were emerging as the largest user for these stock trays.

Of the catalogs we have in our possession, this design only appears in Meek & Beach’s Catalogue No. 16 from 1903. It is listed as Tea Tray No. 20 "This tray will certainly bring pleasure to your customer and business to your store. A Wonderfully Beautiful Child whose every feature and expression has been reproduced with marvelous detail." It also appears in the separate 1903 price list as No. 20 Child with Cap.

Some sellers have suggested that this image may have been created by Frances Brundage, although we’ve never encountered one bearing any artist’s signature. Frances Isabelle Lockwood Brundage (1854–1937) was an American illustrator best known for her depictions of attractive and endearing children on postcards, valentines, calendars, and other ephemera primarily published by Raphael Tuck & Sons, Samuel Gabriel Company, and Saalfield Publishing. Brundage also illustrated children's classics such as the novels of Louisa May Alcott, Johanna Spyri, and Robert Louis Stevenson, and traditional literary collections such as The Arabian Nights and the stories of King Arthur and Robin Hood. After perusing the canon of her works, which are more highly idealized portraits, we did not think it was likely that she would have created this design until we stumbled on an image.