Despard

The Despard is a very old-style switch plate cover and was very popular before 1950.   At that time the rooms were very small, so there was not a lot of wall space for a three-gang switchplate, so they developed the Despard wallplate where you could put up to three switches in the same space as a single type switch plate to achieve the same functionality as the tripe style used today.  The wallplate covers of today are about 7 inches wide, and not 2.5 inches wide, like a Despard.