What you have there, for lack of a better description is a chunk of lead. I find bits and pieces everywhere I go where I metal detect. I have seen hundreds of different shapes from random shaped splatters to cast and moleded finished objects, most often to do with fishing weights, net weights and rope or line weights, also jigger weights for sqiud and for cod, with or without iron or brass hooks cast in. Sometimes I find lead weights that are pounded into disks, sometimes with initials, most without, I call the ones with initials "pseudo-coins". I have seen bits of sheet lead cut into little tools like hammers and hatchets, once into an anchor shape. Most odd bits are just that, odd shaped scrap not made into anything.
What you have appears to have once been a flat sheet that was rolled into a cylinder and pierced, probably by a nail so it could be used for some purpose, who knows. Things like that make you wonder, what the heck, somebody, wither man or boy made that for something. A toy? Did they fix something with it. Lead in those days was fairly wonderous, you could cut it with a knife, melt it and cast it into some shape what was useful. You could remake it from something less useful to something you needed over and over again. You could pound it flat to make a patch on a boat or a leak in a roof. It could be made into a sounder for a boat or birdshot or a slug for shooting moose. then it could be cut up to put in the corner of a drape to keep them from blowing around.
It could be used for anything, over and over again.
I give my scrap to an old man who makes casting nets and casts his own lead weights.
Of course nowadays it is considered hazardous to handle (toxic heavy metal) and some workplaces require workers to take precautions when handling any form of lead.
Times change.
