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On Feb 5, 4:14�am, alex  wrote:
> Dear List members,
> I am interested in your opinion about these two sextants on e-bay:
> 110344551156
> and 300290552493. Is this C.Plath a fake (or assembled of parts of
> different sextants?)
>
> We already discussed this question several years ago (on the old
> list). This seller
> sold several such C. Plath sextants since then. It looks almost
> completely like
> an SNO-M, to the minute detail, including the box construction,
> accessories etc.
> The certificates of C. Plath are definitely fake; they look like
> printed on a computer and filled with
> nonsense. The only difference between this C. Plath and SNO-M is the
> arm and the drum.
> This is what puzzles me.
>
> I know this C. Plath seller, I bought several things from him in the
> past and he makes an impression
> of an honest person. He insists that his C. Plath's are genuine. One
> possible explanation is that
> those early SNO-M were made in Soviet Union on German machinery, and
> they are really copies of
> some C. Plath model. Or could the parts of these sextants be
> interchangeable to such extent, that someone
> attached a C.Plath arm with the drum to an SNO frame???
>
> Alex.

I think the war-time C Plaths and the SNO-Ms almost certainly are the
same sextant except for the luminescent magnifier on the SNO-M. I
believe the frames were literally cast in the same mould and machined
on confiscated machinery in the Soviet sphere. There are other minor
differences, but all the pressure die-cast parts including the frame
are the same. The index arm on the SNO-M is an aluminium pressing
whereas the C Plath had a flat plate.

The question as to whether the C Plath up for sale is a faked
conversion of a SNO-M is another matter. There are blank spaces
available at the ends of a SNO-M limb to stamp numbers and logo. The
index arm would have to be replaced as this is where the serial number
is found on the SNO-M. In a wartime photograph of the sextant type in
use, the index arm is in two parts, with the index arm expansion
screwed on to a strip index arm.

The certificate on the putative C Plath doesn't make a lot of sense
as, although the serial numbers match, it is said to have a vernier
reading to 6 " when there is no vernier on the instrument, and to have
two telescopes, a x 7 and a x 1. Perhaps the latter was a sighting
tube, but  is there anywhere to house it? The micrometer drum is the
same as on my SNO-M, except for the colour.

It is my firm view that when you buy a SNO-M you get a C Plath in all
but name and, for similar reasons, if you buy a SNO-T you get an early
Freiberger Prazisionsmechanik trommelsextant with Zeiss optics . There
is a blog about these USSR sextants on my website at www.sextantbook.com

Bill Morris

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