Thanks guys. I am comforted knowing Steve H is also confounded by this. Probably a belted ball; I wrote winged bullet because I lack the experience to get this terminology down right.
The firearm is not in my possession, it is in a far away land of great myth and dying freedom, and so the present owner, great-great-grandson of the original owner, is trying to show me what it is, to see if I am interested in purchasing it.
Just to get you all worked up, it was fully lacquered head to toe and used as a lamp stand lo these many decades. No lie.
Under the lacquer there appears to be a rifle.
