It's a glass scent-bottle. My mother had it on display when I was a child, because she liked the look of it. She gave it to me a few years ago, on one of the frequent occasions when she thought she was dying but it turned out to be just a bad cough.
I like the bottle too, which is why we also put it on display. However, I've always wanted to know what the original contents smelled like. It's been sealed up all these years, so if I were to remove the cap then I should be able to get a whiff of it. The cap doesn't come off, though — it's stuck tight. I've had a go at it with an assortment of tools over the years, but only ended up risking breaking it.
Another interesting thing about it is the "Chinese" lettering on it, which when you look at it sideways-on seems to be some kind of serial number: 545E4. I don't know what that's about, and neither does the Internet.
I think I'll keep it, anyway, although I may take a hammer to it when I reach the age of 70; I'll be annoyed if I die and never find out what the perfume it contained smelled like.