Abstract: A permanent magnet holding plate comprises a thin base sheet of stiff, nonmagnetic material with a multiplicity of pole pieces made of strips of magnetic material extending across the base plate but separated from one another, and strips of compressible permanent magnet material located in the spaces between the pole pieces and in intimate contact therewith and polarized to induce magnetic poles of opposite polarity in successive pole pieces. In a preferred embodiment, the base plate is curved to form a magnetic holding saddle and the pole pieces and permanent magnet strips are transverse to the curvature of the plate.