Do you know this man?

[mattgaudian]

This is my first post. I live in southwest Minnesota. I found this printing plate in a street tear out. It has the marking I.P.E.U in the corner Does anyone know why they would have made holes in the middle?

 

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[BigWaveDave]

hmmm...good question. Looking at the plate I see that the holes are not exclusive to the middle, and perhaps the middle has not one but 3 holes? who the dude is I don't know, good luck.

 

[etex]

International Photo Engravers Union

 

[Garrett424]

I'm a printer.

If that's some kind of a plate, which it may or may not be, it would be a letterpress plate or die of some sort. It could be used for embossing as well. It's hard to tell for sure what it is from the picture.

If it's lead, the holes could have been punched out simply to re use the lead for something else. Lead can be easily melted down and recycled and it used to be done all of the time. It wasn't unusual to bust up and melt down old stuff to make new.

I work with some people who would know better than me because I'm not a letterpress guy. I'm an offset guy. It's a completely different process but we do still use letterpress where I work, but only for die cutting, embossing, foil stamping and scoring. Our operator has been doing this a very long time though and he would know. I'll try and have him take a look.

He doesn't come in every day so I can't say when. In the meantime maybe someone else knows.

How big is it??

 

[etex]

Could be Jimmy Hoffa and those are bullet holes

 

[mattgaudian]

It's 3 inches by 2

 

[JimDon]

He looks familiar. Maybe Houdini or Coolidge.

 

[ATpro5]

maybe spock off star trek? Haha

 

[Qball]

Could be canceled plate. would be interesting to know who the subject was. Really cool find.

 

[JOHUNT]

J. Edgar Hoover?

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[Tnmountains]

Is the back side blown out? It does look like a nice 3 shot group.Those were usually attached to a wood block. I have a box of them somewhere.

 

[themark1]

I am not able to find this person face, so can't say anything about who is he.

 

[Garrett424]

Is the back side blown out? It does look like a nice 3 shot group.Those were usually attached to a wood block. I have a box of them somewhere.

i think you may be onto something.

 

[Garrett424]

I still can't tell, but the little group of letters on the bottom looks like it could be what's known as a "union bug". It's a type of logo that union printers put on everything they print to basically protect themselves. It's a type of trademark. It's usually much smaller than the one on your piece but apparently in those days they were a bit bigger. They're often so tiny that they're very easy to miss.

If you get caught copying and/or printing a union bug that you have no business printing, you can get in huge trouble and be forced to pay massive fines; sometimes over 100 grand or even more. People have been put out of business for printing them. the unions can be ruthless when it comes to protecting themselves.

I still can't see what those letters are from the pic but if that's a union bug, which it really looks like and you can track down what union it belongs to, you may get your answer. Keep in mind that it may not exist anymore but then again, it might. Someone out there may still know.

 

[Garrett424]

Okay, I looked again and the above poster, Etex is probably correct. It does look like "IPEU" which as he said, stands for International Photo Engravers Union.

Here's a link to a Wiki page about them:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Photo-Engravers_Union_of_North_America

There's a pic of your union bug when you scroll down to the bottom of the Wiki page. It has the local # 419.

They were founded in 1904 and represented half tone photo engravers. Half tones are are photographs and other images reproduced by the method of using many small dots to form a picture. The method is still used today but not by engraving (except for cash mostly). I took a closer look and I can see the dots making up the image. It's definitely printing related.

It looks like you have what's left of a half tone plate. Whether it was used or not is hard to tell. It may have been a bad plate or it may have been used, possibly recycled and/or possibly shot up by someone after the fact.

It may not be a plate but rather something related to the plate making process. I just don't know enough to say for sure.

Can you see any traces of ink on it?? Oil based ink can last a very long time. In those days they were using petroleum base, rather than the soy, vegetable and synthetic oils used in today's inks. You may find some on there is you look closely enough.

 

[mikeraydj]

Looks like it might be Will Rogers. The holes may have been punched so it could not be reused.

 

[Metal Militia]

Looks like Bela Lugosi. Cool find

 

[Limitool]

Is the back side blown out? It does look like a nice 3 shot group.Those were usually attached to a wood block. I have a box of them somewhere.

Maybe.... I see 5 shots in plate if indeed your right. But the holes look so nicely cut not like a bullet holes.

Show the back side and a known coin for size reference.... Thanks.

 

[Garrett424]

Looks like it might be Will Rogers. The holes may have been punched so it could not be reused.

That may be exactly right given the fact that the union bug is on there. They may have wanted to make sure it didn't fall into the hands of any competitors while still usable.

They may have done that to all of their plates before disposing of them.

Printing was one of the largest industries in the US (and the world) for a very long time and it's still huge, but far different given the new digital technology available. The competition has always been fierce. Destroying plates to protect business doesn't seem surprising to me in the least.

I believe the mystery is almost solved.

 

[Garrett424]

Looks like it might be Will Rogers. The holes may have been punched so it could not be reused.

It actually does look like a young Will Rogers. Could be.
Then again it could be anyone.