Old Marble (Faux) Specimen Ruler with Hand-carved Numbers vintage salvation arms Of course I like it

Of course I like it for the EYE (as in Critical Eye

crackers or other small treats

featuring 91 line drawn caricature portraits of types from "the Tool" to "the Investor" to the "Merry Widow"

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

Old Marble (Faux) Specimen Ruler with Hand-carved Numbers vintage salvation arms Of course I like itA 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