Unidentified Tool - Can you help please?

I previously posted this as 'Egyptian Key' but it has been pointed out that the message was more like heiroglyphics than English. I also made the mistake of including a jpg, sorry! So here's a second attempt.

The tool was given to me by an aunt who assures me that it is over a hundred years old. It is shaped in the form of a 'T' about 12 inches long with the top bar about 4 inches across. The diameter is about 1/2 inch except for a 2 inch long, 3/8 diameter dowel that protrudes from the bottom. The dowel is rounded rather than sharpened at the end.

All of the 1/2 section is covered with what appears to be 'silver' tube (about 1/16 inch thick). I assume it's slver because of the characteristic black oxidization but there are no Hallmarks. It isn't worn through indicating it's plated either, despite heavy signs of wear in places. The whole of the 'silver' except for the ends is covered in thousands of Egyptian-like characters about 1/8 inch long. The ends are decorated with what I would describe as a Greecian key design.

I would dearly like to know what this tool was designed for and would greatly appreciate any help. I have a jpg that I could mail to anybody that's interested.

Regards

Send JPG of tool.

Have ya got a 17inch monitor?

Ah come-on, throw one in. ;>

Mine's only 14', but it keeps me 'up' for hours on end.

Nope! not Anon, Tommy Sheraton said that, one day, I think, it was the 8th of June 1793, as he stood and gazed into his finishing pot having just returned from a rather large lunch down at the Cock of The North public house, on Wardour Street, Soho, ... 'Ahhhhhhhh!' he said 'that feels better'

Yes , you have jogged the little grey cells into action, but I believe that it was the 5th of May after a meal of overcooked kippers. The cook, in his own defence, held up his battered utensils and said ' how am I to cook with such meagre tools?' hence the famous reply ;~)