Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) a nose that has been pulled, presumably during a fight or argument.

1859		‘Scene in a London Flash-Panny’ Matsell Vocabulum 99: ‘Why, you joskin,’ retorted Jim; ‘if you don’t stow your whids I’ll put your bowsprit in parenthesis.’.
1868		J.D. McCabe Secrets of the Great City 359: The Detectives’ Manual gives a glossary of this language, from which we take the following specimens [...] Bowsprit in parenthesis. – A pulled nose.
1881		Trumble ‘On the Trail’ in Sl. Dict. (1890) 43: If you don’t stow your winds I’ll put your bowsprit in parenthesis.