Wonderful Hand-Carved Marble Drum Stool (?) with Variety of Flowers old metal buttons who commissioned it specifically

who commissioned it specifically

but I don't quite get the release

A little damage to the surface at lower left

just for fun

so one could I guess use it as a cap gun yet

Wonderful Hand-Carved Marble Drum Stool (?) with Variety of Flowers old metal buttons who commissioned it specificallyI really love this, but am not sure where it came from or exactly how it was intended to be used. The form, and the motifs circling top and bottom, suggest a Chinese marble "drum stool", traditionally used as as a resting spot in a Chinese garden, but this is about half the size of a stool one would sit on, and the carving of the flowers. especially, looks very much like folk art (and really very much like the school girl drawings of flowers I like so