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Here are three views of a magnificent two foot boxwood rule, two and one eighth inches wide, one sixteenth thick, and featuring fine brass end caps. It beautifully inscribed and is in mint original condition, obviously never used, and has acquired a ‘mellow yellow’ patina in the one hundred or more years since it was made that is quite different from the richer orange hues often found on older rules that have been exposed to light and handling.
One of several out of an est…ate in Ohio, my good friend Dan @thedancherry also acquired one, and we have been comparing notes. For those who don’t know him, Dan is the amazingly knowledgeable about anything connected with wooden rules and measures – and many other things (like fountain pens) too! His feed is magnificent, his prose informative, and he’s very much worth following.
After some discussion, we both agree that Mr C M Ahlquist, of whom we can find no trace, made this elegant measuring device some time around 1910, plus or minus ten years, for the use of tailors or dressmakers in marking out paper patterns.
If anyone out there knows anything about C M Ahlquist – other than that the name is of Swedish origin – please share, as I would very much like to learn more of his life and work.
