NavList:

Tom,

I think the frame is the so-called bell pattern. British makers at least
offered lots of different frame designs and Tamaya was probably not slow to
copy them. I have one by Heath and Co that has a stylised heart. The rest of
the sextant closely follows C Plath practice and I suspect that some of the few surviving 
sextants named Tamaya pre-WW II were in fact by Plath. Post WW II, Tamaya
seem to have supplied sextants to a variety of retailers for them to put
their own names on and this was the practice of many makers of sextants,
clocks and even chronometers. I think that the sextant illustrated is
probably WW II or shortly afterwards, though the telescope could be from the
60s.

Bill Morris

Pukenui

New Zealand