Baldwin Estate 2285 Bristol Push Plate

Yes, and Baldwin builds the Estate plates and pulls to be mixed. You can combine any of the door pulls and push plates in the range to make up the push/pull set you want, and pulls always mount centered on the plate. That means you specify the plate and the pull separately rather than buying a matched pair.

It's a residential-duty piece. Baldwin lists the Estate Bristol plate as residential, so for a high-traffic commercial opening, a school corridor or a hospital door, spec a commercial push plate instead. Where it does belong is a front entry, an interior swing door in a home or a boutique-level opening where the finish and the solid brass look are the point.

Four: 003 Polished Brass PVD, 031 Non-Lacquered Brass, 102 Oil Rubbed Bronze, and 260 Polished Chrome. Two of those behave very differently over time. The PVD polished brass holds its color and is the one to pick if you want the plate to look the same in five years. Non-lacquered brass is raw, so it will darken and patina with handling, which is what you want if you're matching other living-finish hardware and not what you want on a door you don't intend to babysit.

A push plate goes on the push side and does one job: it takes the hand and keeps knuckles and oils off the door face. On a door people push through, a plate is what you want, because a pull on the push side just gets in the way. Use the pull on the swing side you have to grab. The Bristol plate covers a 2-3/4 by 10-7/8 inch area of the door, which is the strip that actually gets touched.

It's part of Baldwin's Estate Series, so it carries the same finish numbering as the rest of that range. Match on the finish code, not the name: a 102 Oil Rubbed Bronze plate goes with 102 Estate levers and hinges, 260 with 260 polished chrome. The one to be careful with is 031 non-lacquered brass, since it is a living finish and will drift away from lacquered or PVD brass on adjacent hardware as it ages.

Baldwin builds the Estate line in solid brass, and the Bristol plate is nickel-plated brass for a crisp look that works in traditional or contemporary settings. Practically, that means the plate has the weight and rigidity of a brass part rather than a thin stamped one, and the finish sits on brass rather than on steel, so an edge nick doesn't start rust.