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Originally Posted by fernando
I never knew what mine is. It has the dimensions of a belt buckle (9X5 cms), but not necessarily that.
Made of copper. The back has some signs of having been hooked to something, i wonder what.
The characters depicted are obviously non European ... and neither is the scene.
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Fernando, I believe your plaque is either a box lid mount or a mount for some other unknown type of utilitarian object.
Stylistically the "Orientalism" (meaning anything from the Eastern Mediterranean to the Pacific Ocean) was popular from the third quarter of the 19th century until the 1920's.
The manufacture appears to be done by a process that in the day was called "galvanoplasty", today known as electroforming.
In it a mold is prepared to a finished state and painted with an electrically conductive coating (such as graphite or very finely divided copper or silver powder) in a binder. Electrical current (DC) is run through the surface while it is immersed in a copper rich solution. As the copper is deposited, certain areas are masked off by varnish to slow the deposition, as the current is not running through the whole piece equally. This is how an even thickness is maintained. Periodically it is removed from the solution and scratch brushed. This consolidates the surface and contributes to the structural integrity of the finished piece. Every so often the polarity is reversed, rendering the anode into the cathode and vice versa as this also contributes to the adhesion as the metal is built up.
The reason I believe this is an electroformed piece is that there are always minuscule beads remaining in the details that are a hallmark of this technique. If there none of these beads, then it was struck from steel dies from thin sheet.
Either way, once it is trimmed to shape it was filled with 50/50 solder to preserve its shape and give it some durability.
Both techniques were available at the above mentioned period, but I believe the likelihood is that it was electroformed.
A lot of "museum copies" of high style Renaissance armor were made by electroforming in the 19th century. If a great piece of armor becomes available for a too good to be true price and it is copper, this is what it is - a 19th century museum copy, nothing more.
I think this plaque dates from the earlier end of this period.