Double snail ink well

When this donation came in, it was from the donor's parents estate. At first glance I thought it was a repo but everything that was being donated was very high end.  The mother's clothes were all vintage designer clothes, which of course went right to our consigner Madison. So I had a close look and realized this was the real thing.

My first thought was it was an ink well but I couldn't figure out why there were two on one stand. I posted it on a Facebook group and it came back as an ink well that would have held two different colors of ink, black or blue and red for someone doing accounting. They even post photos of others out there with all the comps. This was the same family that donated all the high end cameras which I'm getting the comps done this morning. Never a dull moment!