Tiny Carved Wooden Skull Paper Knife vintage Mexican animal but one also comes to

but one also comes to realize not all old apothecary jars are the same

and then the point at which the surface of the liquid touches the stem of the hydrometer gives a measure of its relative density

And happily

(A few photos capture a loose thread caught in them

The head attaches to a post and can be removed and turned

Tiny Carved Wooden Skull Paper Knife vintage Mexican animal but one also comes toI find this rather a haunting little carving, I assume meant to serve as a letter opener, and certainly with well more than a hundred years on it I have to think it has opened some letters bearing pretty sad news. The skull itself is tiny, but reads very clearly as a skull, which I've shot with some magnification to get a better sense of its details, which make it look a bit more crude than with viewed by the eye alone. Pretty amazing. 4" long; skull