Mystery Artifact: A Brush with History!

Greetings, all!  Construction continues apace in our Main Gallery this week, as our contractors work on framing walls for various aspects of the new exhibit.  It's exciting to watch the exhibit coming together, and we're already eager to get in there and add more exciting details!

This week's mystery artifact has nothing to do with construction, but it is a very functional item.  I think, if you can figure out the context in which the item was used, you will be able to guess it easily!

The object is a rounded metal box with brackets on either side which could be used to bolt the item to a level surface.  The box encloses a circular brush on a wheel, with a handle to turn the wheel.

There is a section of the left side that can be flipped up and over the brush, as you can see in the photo above.  According to my research, at one time there would have been a drawer at the very bottom that would collect the debris from the brushing motion.

The object is almost a foot wide at its widest point, and slightly higher than a foot tall.

What do you think this artifact might be?  Post your best guesses in the comments section below!