1826 brass german shoemakers wall hanging

Stuck with figuring out what this was for, may be a one off. Its 7 ins high 5 and a half wide, hangs up with box that opens on the back. It talks about a shoemaker, a table, upper and lower forest is about all I can translate from the German. Dated 4th March 1826. A lot of work here and I love it but I've not seen anything like it. Any ideas please?
Jumble sale buy for 50pence.

 

Fascinating little thing!
Houseful, my ol' man speaks a little German... if you want to write out the German text, I'll show it to him.
Can't wait to see what people make of this.

 

Cigar case?

 

Did they have cigarettes in 1826? It's only a half inch wide...

EDIT
If that's what it is, would somebody hang it, like from a belt?

 

Possibly from Bavaria or other south German Lande, probably held a prayer or some other small votive object. At home you'd touch it on the way out, at work, on the way in, where it hung by the door. I think Judeaism has a similar superstition about lucky objects hung by the door, also compare holy water stoups and home shrines.

 

5-1/2" wide.
Doesn't state how deep but I thought Cigarillo type cigars for it.

 

Ah!

 

Sorry Gila it's 5 and a half inches wide, I haven't been clear enough and it's 7 inches long. The box on the back is a bit smaller but only quarter of an inch deep. I can't really read all of it as the letters are difficult.
Here's some anyway..ober forste math knjsner Rudy formund dan fux not dan balt. The top banner last 2 words are Schumacher Tafel
Which I thought might be a shoemakers guild.

 

That makes great sense, AF... !

Okay, House, my ol' man will be home soon!

 

Ah, that's quite thin so sounds like AF has the right track.

 

THink of it as bringing automation to the prayer business. By touching this you say a prayer. The Tibetans really cracked it with their water powered prayer wheels, bringing true mass production to the effort of piety.

 

Thanks Gila, and to you AF, it's a bit heavy to hang off the person, think likely a wall. Perhaps someone made some great boots on that day or qualified as a shoemaker and got the key to the workshop!
We have a shoe museum here in Uk who have been offline for ages doing their website update so I will give them a try.

 

Well, here's your guy, I think... the owner.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Christian_Schumacher
Famous guy, lived from 1780-1859... This is a commemorative plaque for him. So the boot has nothing to do with shoe-making... maybe a coast of arms or such?
Not sure what the secret compartment is all about.
A public plaque I ran across.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Schumacher-Tafel.jpg

 

Hola Gila, many thanks for your input
This is something unexpected, an astronomer, scientist. Could be a coat of arms, I hadn't considered that at all.
I have found it very difficult to track down coats of arms in the past as there are so many of them but I will try a boot with rampant lions and see if anything comes up.
I will still get in touch with our Northampton shoe museum though just in case they've seen anything similar.
Thanks again

 

Yayyyyyyyyyyyyyy! And you're welcome!

Heyyyy... since he spent so much time in Copenhagen... might that text be in Danish? My ol' man said it was very weird German...