Very odd table - thoughts?

OK, have a look at this. Looks like a nice little mahogany plant or tea table, until you turn it upside down. Then, you see the butterfly nut, which unscrews to reveal the oddest interior. There are holes going right through, with what look like regular indentsations to take, what? And each impression has a letter and a number, too. The lid has some sort of pattern number, and one of the indentation sets says BATT.

It's really well made and has me utterly flummoxed. Came from the house of a woman who died at the age of 103 - she'd been a milliner, and loved photography, too, but I can't think of any connection to either of those things. Oh, and she was Jewish, born and bred in London of an old "immigrant" family, not WW2 settlers.

I wondered lacemaking, but those are normally much bigger tables.

 

Thanks Don! I think it's a bit old for electronics - from the construction, I suspect it's Edwardian. I did wonder if BATT meant battery, but I can't see what the darn thing would do. All the games tables I know have nice tops that are where you play, if that makes sense.

I'm going to sell this, eventually, for someone else, but I'm determined to find out what it is.

 

I use to work on generators and to me, it looks like a piece of a terminal board for something electric. I may be off but that's what I'm seeing.

 

Davey, the other half was a radio engineer who built his own sets and he's never seen anything like this. There's far too many "connections" for an old valve radio - and it would get baking hot, too. Plus, it isn't deep enough for valves of any age, and where would the speaker diaphragm have gone?

Those holes are all made in such a way that the edges are rounded off and smooth - the whole thing looks as though it was all done when it was original, if that makes sense.

Armando, that base fits the lid perfectly and the wood is the same. The lettering is stamped in. The top has an X to show where it should line up with a corresponding X on the base and the lugs look to have been set in when it was made, too - there's no sign of the kind of damage or impact a conversion might have made.

 

Thanks Davey - my himself built crystal and valve sets for fun. It'd be interesting to hear what your dad says!

It's the lettering that makes no sense, either, and nor does that pattern number or whatever on the underside of the lid. And all the wood grain matches nicely, too. Those indentations don't have any depth very much to them, and no screw lines - or even any sign that anything like wiring ever fitted in. And it all lines up so nicely with the shape of the table.

I can't ask the original owner, of course - but her friend might know if anyone got out with anything.

 

Very interesting.
If it were a radio how would you turn it on or off, without turning the table over and taking it apart.
And it couldn't have been a secret as there would have to have been wires running in and out.

I googled the letter series shown L2 E T K1 K2 K3
Got some pretty weird stuff about magnetism, microwaves and other things that I have no idea what they were talking about.

 

For generators, etc. you have those letters and numbers below or above a mechanism, relay switch, etc. on the the terminal board.

 

It's too small to take either batteries or valves of the period - WW2, that is. And the other problem is that the table itself is older - late 19th or so. If it's a secret radio, you'd not bother with speaker holes? Once the top was off, you'd be able to hear.

Armando, there's no sign of anything ever having been mounted on the board - and again, I think the size is against that, given this dates back before PCBs and microswitches.

 

Who knows, there may be a piece that went with this that is now long gone. I agree with Davey that this looks like something that might had been used, or designed for the intentions to fool someone. I honestly think there's a missing second part.

 

I've got it! It's for a medium who conducts seances. The medium would use it to make sounds, taps and other-worldly noises!

 

Funny you should say that, as it was my first thought too.
But, I as far as I know, Jews don't believe in spirits/ghosts, so then I wasn't sure.

 

I see P and C marked holes. any marked 'R'?

 

Messi, I was making a joke, or, at least I thought I was! LOL!

 

I have to admit that I was just letting my mind run wild trying to think of what it might be, and then I thought of that.
But like I said, I didn't think it would be likely.