Solid Brass "something"?

I spotted this on the side of the road with someone's trash! I found it unique and thought I could use it as a plant stand. On examining the decorative art of it, I realized it was something more than a plant stand and that it was brass! It's all tarnished up so bad, but very small area of the bottom had scraped on my concrete patio and the yellow shine showed up like shining gold! I had no idea it was even brass. With all the tarnish built up, it resembled pewter. I grabbed a magnet off of my refrigerator and it would not stick to it, proving no regular metals were used. The rivets are even brass. It has 6 arched panels that are riveted onto the side, as shown in the photos I posted. It has nice artwork of bamboo with flowers. On the top of it, there's a design of a bird with it's wings spread out. The bird's tail has a long round look. It has a crown of feathers with a medium-sized beak that is slender. At first I thought it may be a brass globe that hung over a light, but the bamboo design would be upside down. It looks like the bottom may attach to another piece. Some have said it may be a barrel-look table or stool. First of all, why would they get into such detail on the top of it just to cover it up with something as with a table? A stool would be the same thing. There's no way they put such detail just to be covered up. Some have guessed it's an antique umbrella holder, but again, it would be upside down according to the bamboo details and then again, the artwork would be on the bottom for no one to see. None of the guesses make any sense to me. And as for it being a stool, you would want to put a cushion on it to cover up the artwork and it's only 19" high, and the the bottom of it doesn't have a solid bottom and would be unstable to sit on. The bottom really looks like it attaches to something else or another piece. Don't know. All guesses here. Does the bamboo detailing make it Asian, Oriental?

Having problems downloading pics! My photo information states that they are 2 MG, JPEG, but it will only download one of my pictures. How will I be able to post them? I'm not too computer savvy. Ratssss!