Can anyone identify this object please?

[treefish]

Hello. I aquired this in ireland 20 years ago and noone has ever identified it or where it might have come from. Can anyone tell me please?
The dail on the top right hand side turns and moves the 'V' sight left or right and both the verticaL and horizontal axis are numbered and marked.
Thanks,
Tom

- - Updated - -

forgot to mention the holster. It appears to be a pistol holster but was made specifically for this object. It has no means of attachment to a belt or strap and the inside has a wooden insert specifically for the object to slide into.
To me it appears to be a gun-site or something similar.

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi, and welcome to the forum!

Looks Imperial German and artillery related to me.

Cheers, Ade.

[HPL2008]

Ade is right. (As usual )

This is an Aufsatz [= attachment], which was one of two components of an artillery piece's gun sights, the other being the Korn [= front sight]. The Korn was permanently attached to the gun barrel, the Aufsatz was only affixed when in actual use.

(Information and below illustration taken from "Das kleine Buch vom Deutschen Heere" by Oberleutnant Hein, originally published in 1901.)

[Adrian Stevenson]

The honours belong to you my friend!

I have moved this to the Imperial forum.

Cheers, Ade.

[octavian]

HPL WROTE:

This is an Aufsatz [= attachment], which was one of two components of an artillery piece's gun sights, the other being the Korn [= front sight]. The Korn was permanently attached to the gun barrel, the Aufsatz was only affixed when in actual use.

(Information and below illustration taken from "Das kleine Buch vom Deutschen Heere" by Oberleutnant Hein, originally published in 1901.)

Thanks for that picture to get an exact reference. Did it take you long to find it or kinda new about this piece? I was thinking it was for surveying!?! LOL. Good job dude. I learn something new in here everyday.

[treefish]

Thats great. Well done and thank you. Do you know how it was carried, as there are no attachments on the holster at all?
Olso, do you know if there is a market for for this kind of militaria? I like it very much but think it would be better appreciated by a real enthusiast

[HPL2008]

Did it take you long to find it or kinda new about this piece? I was thinking it was for surveying!?! LOL. Good job dude.

Thanks!

Truth be told, I would not have been able to identify it offhand, but after Ade had pointed us in the right direction, it was just a matter of looking it up in said publication. (I have this book both as a modern-day facsimile reprint and as a pdf-file.)

By the way: The book is in the public domain and available as free e-book in various file formats; see here:
Hein-Oberleutnant-Das-kleine-Buch-vom-Deutschen-Heere : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive
I highly recommend it to German-speaking members with an interest in the Imperial German army.

[NickM]

Well, I am absolutely bloody amazed that you guys can identify things like this. Kudos to you.