ALL POINTS QUESTION

Well here’s some fun. This issue’s object has been sent to us by a reader and he – and we! – genuinely don’t know what it is. The pocket-sized object has been fabricated mainly from hardwood and brass and is embedded with a magnetic compass. The date of manufacture is unknown – it lives in a leather pouch that’s marked 1906, but that could be when the pouch was made. It’s sturdy and portable: 75mm x 75mm x 25mm (although you can bet its maker measured in inch increments). The Brisbane firm that made it shut in 1932; its long-time owner was J.C. James, of Armidale, NSW. Anyone who can identify it wins a copy of the book Best Australian

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