🔎 UNIDENTIFIED Large Metal Base (Candle Holder?) + Button?

[USNFLYR]

Hi all. I found these two items near a possible trapper camp/fur trader post. The banged up metal item is 6+ inches long. It has 3 curled up equidistant tongues that served as a stand. I am not familiar enough to know the type of metal. The metal detector showed it solid 82 and a reading of "quarter". Interestingly, the item was twisted and collapsed, and had no plier, vice or hammer marks. The neck appears to have been snipped off. Through the cutting of the mouth, the soft metal crimped together. I searched online for antique ink wells or candle holders and can not find a close example. Can anyone tell what era this is ….. colonial…. Art deco….modern? It would be great if anyone can nail what is was used for. One possible explanation is it was scrape metal intended to be traded to nearby natives. The other item appears to be either a "cap" or a dome button. It was a solid brass reading and matches the size of some military (CW) buttons from 1860. I gently cleaned out the back, but stopped when it looked like I was scraping away original surface layers (cross hatched design?). It has a design….maybe a crest? And it appears to have a rust mound that could’ve been a shank.

Any experts, please weigh in. I have posted 3 other items today on a previous thread, that appear to be mid 19th century. If I can get a good date from all my finds, I can rule in/out traders/trappers.