Mystery object from the past

This object has been a puzzle for more than two years, lol! This photo was taken by my friend, Eric Brown, who lives in England and knew my Brother. He and his wife, Anne, were two of the friends who went through my Brother's house in such meticulous detail after John died, saving everything of interest and importance, including a huge amount of paper documents and photos. When they had completed this enormous task, they made sure that everything was packed carefully in 12 boxes and shipped over to me here in Calgary. This object, actually, is not something I asked to be sent, even though I found it fascinating. It is quite large and probably heavy - it looks like it was photographed on an ottoman/stool. Since then, Eric has been searching for an answer to "What is it?", but has not yet been able to solve the mystery. We are hoping that someone might just know or be able to make a suggestion. A long-time friend of Eric's did tell him what he thought it was used for, but I won't add that till later.