This is a very small Irish mealey beg turned from sycamore.
It only measures 8cm w x 5cm w.
A Mealey Beg was a sycamore butter bowl & lid and was used for either taking samples of butter to market, it was also used for storing butter by fishermen and shepherds whilst they were away for long periods of time. These antique treen Mealey Begs, according to Pinto, were buried in the ground in peat or covered with stones to keep the butter cool when the shepherds were up in the high pastureland in the Summer for several weeks at a time.