Old Marble (Faux) Specimen Ruler with Hand-carved Numbers vintage salvation arms crackers or other small treats

crackers or other small treats

with portions of prints on reverse

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

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

also has a bit of a lumpiness to the form

Old Marble (Faux) Specimen Ruler with Hand-carved Numbers vintage salvation arms crackers or other small treatsA 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