Here's a guess for you: When home canning you have to boil the lids. That thinghy would allow you to boil them and then lift them up. It's always a pain to get ahold of the flat lids submersed in the boiling water.
Have to boil the crown caps for homebrewing, too. Same problem.
Just from looking at it and seeing the little wire tabs on the edge...my guess is that it would have sat on the edge of a pan....just enough so that the bottom was submerged in oil....maybe....so it fried only a side at a time....maybe for krullers or something