Primitive wooden Club. Maybe PESTLE for grapes/wine? You thoughts...

[parksidedawn]

What do you think this item is?  What was it used for?

[reallynicestamps]

How long is it? About eight inches?

My dad built his own wine press, but it squeezed the grapes between two flat boards.

He'd seen something like it when he served with the RAF in Italy during the War.

[parksidedawn]

It is slightly shorter than a basebll bat.

[maxine*j]

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@parksidedawn wrote:

It is slightly shorter than a basebll bat.

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Then I'd say it's for use while you're standing up, and using both hands.  Perhaps for pounding grain, as in these images:

https://www.google.com/search?q=pounding+grain&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiSxorrl6LcAhUGuV...

[parksidedawn]

Great images!!   Only difference I notice is that the items used to pound grain seem to have a rounded bottom as opposed to the flat one on this item.  

[parksidedawn]

Perhaps is was used to mash Potatoes.  Maybe by a cook serving many individuals such as US Army.

[maxine*j]

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@parksidedawn wrote:

Perhaps is was used to mash Potatoes.  Maybe by a cook serving many individuals such as US Army.

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No. 

[afantiques]

If you are familiar with the expression 'pound sand', this is what you do it with.

[lacemaker3]

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@parksidedawn wrote:

Great images!!   Only difference I notice is that the items used to pound grain seem to have a rounded bottom as opposed to the flat one on this item.  

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Several of the pictures in that link show a flat bottom, so I would say that @maxine*j nailed this one.

 

[pillarboxred]

I remember seeing things a bit like this described as "washing dollies". For whacking laundry around in a barrel.  This could be False Memory Syndrome but might be worth investigating.

[maxine*j]

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@pillarboxred wrote:

I remember seeing things a bit like this described as "washing dollies". For whacking laundry around in a barrel.  This could be False Memory Syndrome but might be worth investigating.

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I don't think so.  All the ones I've seen have bottoms that are either like plungers or they have finger-like projecttions -- in both cases, to really "agitate" the clothes -- and this Google image search seems to bear that out:

https://www.google.com/search?q=antique+washing+dolly&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwii8eONiKf...

Not that you couldn't pound and swirl the laundry with this, mind you.