Old Marble (Faux) Specimen Ruler with Hand-carved Numbers vintage salvation arms are the best of the

are the best of the best

I see a green snake with bared teeth and fantastically long tongue

(I also love the note of "Non Poisonous Colors" on the side of the box

and it is 8 3/8" between that ledge and the bottom of the crossbar above

with portions of prints on reverse

Old Marble (Faux) Specimen Ruler with Hand-carved Numbers vintage salvation arms are the best of theA little searching turns up that Italian marble pietra dura "specimen" rulers were a thing, popular in the late 1800s as Grand Tour souvenirs. This, however, is not that it appears to be to be all one piece of marble, with carved lines to delineate inches and the variations in color done with some sort of dye. I tend to like aspirational things imitating other things, but what I especially like about this one, which makes it quite singular, is that