Brass plate

[cudamark]

What do you suppose this brass plate was used for? When I first found it, I though it was a piece of scrap metal, but, after a bit of cleaning I saw letters in it. It's the exact size of a standard business card. It has "Mr. William Jerome Russell" backwards on one side and nothing on the other. Normally when I see words that are backwards, I think printing plate. The difference on this one is the letters are incused rather than protruding. If you inked the plate and then stamped something, it would print everything BUT the letters. Any thoughts?

 

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[vhs07]

Maybe on a press to emboss the name on a paper card?

 

[ARC]

Print plate IMO.

 

[Old Pueblo]

Cool find. The writing looks fancy, so maybe late 1800s early 1900s.

 

[cudamark]

It would have to have had some sort of framework holding it as there doesn't appear to be any attaching point on the plate itself. With such tiny and shallow lettering, it would take quite a bit of pressure to get any kind of raised printing out of it. Being brass, I don't see that happening. Maybe if it was steel that would work to some degree.

 

[Plug N Play]