Authentic NRA lithograph plate

[Powderedtoastman]

hi. I have a unique item that I cannot find a single picture of or any information on anywhere. maybe someone on here can tell me more. It is a very old NRA OFFICIAL 100yard small bore rifle target. Lithograph plate. Used to make the actual paper targets. Made by WISLER WESTERN ARMS INC. In Sanfransisco. I don’t know a year. Appearently people don’t have these things. 0 known auctions for something like this. Extremely rare. I’m hoping it has some value. Thanks.

Rotated image so people can read words:

 

[Fast14riot]

Just like in coin collecting, there is such a thing as too rare to be valuable. No known examples makes it hard to value, beyond novelty or in print collectors circles.

Maybe reach out to the Sacramento History Museum, they have an operating historical print shop and know quite a bit about printing from the area.

 

[divingin]

Everything I found online says that Wisler Western Arms was a (rather large) retailer in SF (unfortunately, I didn't locate operating dates for the shop.) Sort of like what Herter's used to be (though I suspect not as large.) Apparently they did a lot of agreements with manufacturers, and their name show up on rifles, shotguns, butt pads, etc.

 

[Aero]

Everything I found online says that Wisler Western Arms was a (rather large) retailer in SF (unfortunately, I didn't locate operating dates for the shop.) Sort of like what Herter's used to be (though I suspect not as large.) Apparently they did a lot of agreements with manufacturers, and their name show up on rifles, shotguns, butt pads, etc.

What you have is a letterpress plate. I've got a couple similar to it that I rescued from a gun clubs dumpster. Back in the day, Wisler Western Arms probably had all kinds of stuff printed, from stuff they used in house like order forms or bookkeeping items, maybe price tags or even time cards, to stuff that was printed to give or sell to customers that had their name on it like scratch pads, calendars, or targets. They most likely had a print shop that did all their printing and that shop made the plate.

I have no idea what it's worth, but one reason you don't see these things around is they regularly got melted down and reused.

They also got turned into bullets.

 

[Coyotefurharvester]

Won't the lettering/numbers have to be backwards on the plate?

Forum Boss: I flipped and enlarged the image so people could see it.

 

[paperpuncher]

Aero hit it on the head Its a letterpress plate. Most of the ones I have I have encountered are attached to a wood backer to get the for up to the correct height to print. Yours appears to be copper clad lead but they are also plain lead, zinc, copper, brass and magnesium. Weird that the thumbnail pic is reversed( mirrored image) as it should be to print but the full pic is right reading. They would print with these on a letterpress. I wouldn't think it would be especially valuable but might have value to someone for a display, collection or presentation. In the past we have sold the "cutts" which are smaller versions of the form you have, corporate logos like coke chevy ford ect to collectors and enthusiasts. I used to buy printing equipment and recyclable metals from printers and have seen 1000s of different forms, posters and advertising from the letterpress days. I have never seen a target like that however

 

[paperpuncher]

Won't the lettering/numbers have to be backwards on the plate?

Its correct in the thumbnail but not on the full pic I wonder if it is a computer auto correct

Forum Boss: I flipped and enlarged the image so people could see it.

 

[rlporter507]

Well this was my first real job in the trades. I worked for a engraving company in Denver, started in the etching department. anyone could make artwork, then we took a picture of it with a camera that was 20 feet long. Like an old bellows camera. the back of the camera was actually a dark room. We had one camera that could take a 40 inch square piece of film. the film was then put on a light sensitive coated plate in a vacuum frame, then exposed to light, so the image was now on the plate backwards and developed and dried. the plates were ether zinc, copper, or magnesium.
then the plate was put into an etching machine on a table that rotated, and the bottom of the machine there was paddles that agitated the nitric acid as the table turned. The acid ate away the plate were it was not protected by the light sensitive coating. there was an oil in with the acid that would cling to the side of the image so it would not get under the image. so then the plate could go into the letter press and sheets of paper were feed one at a time and the image came out on the paper.
So if your plate is fairly light, its probably magnesium. if its heavier, its zinc.
Now if its lead, then a plate was made like above, but reading right, then it was put into a press that squeezed a thick piece of damp mat paper into the plate so there was the opposite image in the mat. This was the process we did for newspaper ads that were sent all over the country. a light weight mat could be sent to the papers cheaper than making 100's of plates, and the newspapers poured lead into the mat to get a lead plate for there press.
Your plate looks to be well used, the image is coming through the back, so its had lots of impressions. its probably zinc or magnesium.
these plates were also mounted on wood, depending on what kind of press you had.
before the etching process, they were carved out by hand, first in stone, then in metal.
Now you know more than you wanted about being a "Photo Engraver" which i was for 30+ years.

 

[Powderedtoastman]

Won't the lettering/numbers have to be backwards on the plate?

Forum Boss: I flipped and enlarged the image so people could see it.

Well this was my first real job in the trades. I worked for a engraving company in Denver, started in the etching department. anyone could make artwork, then we took a picture of it with a camera that was 20 feet long. Like an old bellows camera. the back of the camera was actually a dark room. We had one camera that could take a 40 inch square piece of film. the film was then put on a light sensitive coated plate in a vacuum frame, then exposed to light, so the image was now on the plate backwards and developed and dried. the plates were ether zinc, copper, or magnesium.
then the plate was put into an etching machine on a table that rotated, and the bottom of the machine there was paddles that agitated the nitric acid as the table turned. The acid ate away the plate were it was not protected by the light sensitive coating. there was an oil in with the acid that would cling to the side of the image so it would not get under the image. so then the plate could go into the letter press and sheets of paper were feed one at a time and the image came out on the paper.
So if your plate is fairly light, its probably magnesium. if its heavier, its zinc.
Now if its lead, then a plate was made like above, but reading right, then it was put into a press that squeezed a thick piece of damp mat paper into the plate so there was the opposite image in the mat. This was the process we did for newspaper ads that were sent all over the country. a light weight mat could be sent to the papers cheaper than making 100's of plates, and the newspapers poured lead into the mat to get a lead plate for there press.
Your plate looks to be well used, the image is coming through the back, so its had lots of impressions. its probably zinc or magnesium.
these plates were also mounted on wood, depending on what kind of press you had.
before the etching process, they were carved out by hand, first in stone, then in metal.
Now you know more than you wanted about being a "Photo Engraver" which i was for 30+ years.

Thank you for all of the helpful information. The plate is not particularly heavy. But is very malleable.

 

[Fast14riot]

Well this was my first real job in the trades. I worked for a engraving company in Denver, started in the etching department. anyone could make artwork, then we took a picture of it with a camera that was 20 feet long. Like an old bellows camera. the back of the camera was actually a dark room. We had one camera that could take a 40 inch square piece of film. the film was then put on a light sensitive coated plate in a vacuum frame, then exposed to light, so the image was now on the plate backwards and developed and dried. the plates were ether zinc, copper, or magnesium.
then the plate was put into an etching machine on a table that rotated, and the bottom of the machine there was paddles that agitated the nitric acid as the table turned. The acid ate away the plate were it was not protected by the light sensitive coating. there was an oil in with the acid that would cling to the side of the image so it would not get under the image. so then the plate could go into the letter press and sheets of paper were feed one at a time and the image came out on the paper.
So if your plate is fairly light, its probably magnesium. if its heavier, its zinc.
Now if its lead, then a plate was made like above, but reading right, then it was put into a press that squeezed a thick piece of damp mat paper into the plate so there was the opposite image in the mat. This was the process we did for newspaper ads that were sent all over the country. a light weight mat could be sent to the papers cheaper than making 100's of plates, and the newspapers poured lead into the mat to get a lead plate for there press.
Your plate looks to be well used, the image is coming through the back, so its had lots of impressions. its probably zinc or magnesium.
these plates were also mounted on wood, depending on what kind of press you had.
before the etching process, they were carved out by hand, first in stone, then in metal.
Now you know more than you wanted about being a "Photo Engraver" which i was for 30+ years.

It's pretty cool how old technologies get recycled. I did the same basic process but on the micron scale, X-ray lithography, even the developing was similar. Of course, the physical materials were different, but the process is the same.

 

[TIMO]

Cool old shooting related item, I would prominently display it in my reloading room. A good conversation piece.

Tim

 

[rlporter507]

When a cool piece of artwork came in, we would make a plate for ourselves. We would spray paint it black, then with a fine sand paper sand off the paint on the high spots, then coat with clear coat. I still have some neat animal plates, and a train.

 

[paperpuncher]

We did a clean out of a shop years ago. I found some very old 4 color separations. Typically they were 4 pieces of film. These apparently preceded the film the emulsion was actually on a pc of glass Very odd, those were the only ones I have ever seen.