Ruler

As everyday objects, rulers are produced to be purely functional and have little ornamentation. This ruler, with its low relief carving, incising, and application of lacquer staining, has been embellished with an array of decorative enhancements. Darkening the incised lines and staining the negative space, the application of lacquer creates a wonderful contrast to the lighter bamboo wood.

This ruler has measurement intervals on one half of its surface using hatch marks to delineate small intervals. These hatch marks are backed by alternating flowers or leaves corresponding to every fifth hatch mark. The other half of the ruler face is divided into four alternating dark and light sections of slightly different lengths. The dark section are ornamented with either birds or plum blossoms. The light segments are decorated with either a tortoise shell or scale pattern.