Wooden Leveling Square From The Islands Of A Parisian Machinist From The End Of The 18th Century

On the ocean of the past, silence reigns but sometimes, like a bottle in the sea, floats a subliminal message: LEVELS; PROBLEM FOR A BOUGHON; N. GABORY MACHINIST PORTE SAINT ANTOINE N ° 74. PARIS. 1787.With this Cuban mahogany and ebony square, the sieur GABORY, as his Vendée surname says, had to practice a “sea” profession, as a ship's carpenter in Rochefort, before finding himself, like many others sailors, stagehands, to handle capstans, pulleys and "ropes" (cursed term on boats and on the boards of a theater!). As for the sieur BOUGHON, whose surname tells us that he comes from Puy de Dome, it had to not be an example of sobriety to need a level ... and thus be mocked! Finally, last trace of a possible English origin of the object, in addition to the materials that constitute it, the words "V. (vivat) qui mal y pense" in black ink under the ebony center ... spoils of war of the perfidious Albion or humor of a machinist? Tool in good condition, the lost ball of which was replaced. Beyond that, exceptional testimony to the social recycling of ship crews "at the maneuver" on the stages of Parisian theaters. As for the humor "stamped" I let you judge!