Old Marble (Faux) Specimen Ruler with Hand-carved Numbers kitties the founder of Zen Buddhism

the founder of Zen Buddhism

and then his head looks to be ceramic or composition over wood I would guess

and also with a just-in matte green arts and crafts vase

complete with pencil-drawn outlines on the uncarved end

with her face reminding me rather of the sculptural women of Gaston Lachaise

Old Marble (Faux) Specimen Ruler with Hand-carved Numbers kitties the founder of Zen BuddhismA 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