From your description, particularly about "threads inside" and having glass "in the back," it appears to be the brass wick-assembly holder from a glass-based oil/kerosene lamp. The wick-assembly screwed into the threads inside the ring, which was crimped onto the top of the lamp's glass base.
I own a glass-based oil/kerosene lamp which has this same wick-assembly holder (except without the Patent-marking). Unfortunately I do not have a "working" digital camera at the moment, so I can't take a photo of my lamp base for you. Perhaps somebody else here has such a photo.