This appears to be a vase with hand carved dragons in a battle like scene. From what I can determine, the two dragons appear to be in the air (flying) and the larger dragon (to the left) appears to be blowing fire at the dragon at the bottom of the vase (which seems to be engulfed in fire). The larger dragon's body seems to wrap around the back of the vase for about an inch then disappear into the clouds? and the tail reappears in the top right corner. Another way to look at the image is as the opening of a cave. The lager dragon is standing in the cave (as seen in the edges where the dragon stands and where his tail reappears, it looks blocky and stone like. Much as a mountian, cliff, or cave opening might look) and the other dragon is coming up the side of the mountian or cave. (The tail could possibly also be that of the other dragon.) The swirls might not be clouds or air currents then, but rather smoke? And his body disappears behind terrain, mountians, etc or disappears into the darkness rather than in the clouds. The top is light grey with dark grey splotches and the base is dark brown with light brown and creme splotches (the base surface does not seem to be a natural material). The base also has a mesh pattern carved into it. You can clearly see the that the whole thing is hand carved due to the tool markings and shapes created. There is also fine detail all over the main scene in places such as the scales and so on. I have no idea what it may be worth, let alone what it even is. It's possible it may just be a priceless nic-nack she picked up in her travels as a young woman.