new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/plot/isaxes.m
@@ -0,0 +1,56 @@
+## Copyright (C) 2013 Rik Wehbring
+##
+## This file is part of Octave.
+##
+## Octave is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
+## under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+## the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at
+## your option) any later version.
+##
+## Octave is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
+## WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+## MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
+## General Public License for more details.
+##
+## You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+## along with Octave; see the file COPYING.  If not, see
+## <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+
+## -*- texinfo -*-
+## @deftypefn {Function File} {} isaxes (@var{h})
+## Return true if @var{h} is an axes graphics handle and false otherwise.
+##
+## If @var{h} is a matrix then return a logical array which is true where
+## the elements of @var{h} are axes graphics handles and false where
+## they are not.
+## @seealso{isaxes, ishandle}
+## @end deftypefn
+
+## Author: jwe
+
+function retval = isaxes (h)
+
+  if (nargin != 1)
+    print_usage ();
+  endif
+
+  hlist = ishandle (h);
+  if (any (hlist))
+    retval(hlist) = strcmp (get (h(hlist), "type"), "axes");
+  else
+    retval = hlist;
+  endif
+
+endfunction
+
+
+%!test
+%! hf = figure ("visible", "off");
+%! unwind_protect
+%!   hax = axes ();
+%!   assert (isaxes (hax));
+%!   assert (! isaxes (-hax));
+%! unwind_protect_cleanup
+%!   close (hf);
+%! end_unwind_protect
+