I find these old brass surveyors/architects stencils so beautiful--paper thin, finely made, and shining rather like liquid gold in the light. I purchased a lot of them from a seller in England, and have broken them up into smaller thematic groups. These would have been used to annotate blueprints/architectural renderings, but as a lover of found language I like them as small, evocative signs of sorts, which could be interesting in all sorts contexts. I like how this set speaks to power and potential and distribution of a load, i,.e. "scaling up" or "scaling out." And of course I like "chains to an inch," with chains (Gunter's chain) a distance measuring device used for surveying. 

Sold as set of three. Approx 5 7/8" x 2 5/8" ea. Very good condition. c. early 20th c.