This unusually small diptych dial in a fitting brass container is signed 'P R' with the maker's mark of a crown and is therefore very likely to have been made by Paul Reinmann, the most prominent ivory compass maker in Nuremberg, whose earliest and latest instruments are recorded between 1575 and 1608 respectively.
The engraved shield of arms on the inner surface of the upper leaf allows the Holzschuher family of Nuremberg to be identified as the first owners.
