A DIFFERENT PIECE FOUND BY JOEL SCHIFF

Hi folks,
 Found this piece in a flea in Arundel Me. for the munificent amount of $15.  The guy had just cleaned out a really old house that had really old redware flasks shaped like a bulbous teardrop(1 fists wide at the bottom, & maybe 1/2" at the top) almost certainly for 'hooch'.
 Anyhow also had the quite bizarre 'oval roaster'(a 'dedicated piece' to a particular stove?) -- 22 1/2"outside length x 12 7/8" outside width x 5 1/2" outside height | 5 3/8" inside depth --  that had a regular size stove lid/stove lid hole in the BOTTOM of the roaster, along with an oval 'grease trivet', & a neat, thin, stovelid lifter that could fit inbetween that 'grease trivet's slats, if necessary.
 The lid, & 'grease trivet' have the right numbers, so am fairly sure they are original to the piece, & likely also the stovelid lifter.
 If used as an OR, I suppose that the juices from the cooking would flow down around the stove lid, to carmelize & seal the pot.
 Or if the stovelid were removed, I guess you could bake a whole rack of ribs?  Don't know how else would be used, or what kind of lid it had.
 One possibility is that it could have completely sat inside the oval hole(made by removing the 2 stovelids & the 'bridge' over the firebox) in the range -- which would have had it then suspended from the rim(ie. ~1/8" above the stove surface) -- where it would have been effectively completely surrounded by the fire -- in effect a secondary oven(with or without its bottom stovelid removed)
 Can't imagine it working without a lid -- which might as leaf been tin, as CI.
 Don't recall seeing this kind of dynamic on another pot -- but maybe someone else has?

 Best -- joel