After calming down from the shock, I deduced that it's some kind of velveteen toy.
Here's what it looks like out of its box:
I think it may be a monkey (it's definitely not a rabbit). Those beads on its head are meant to be its eyes. The ribbon probably isn't original. It has some nice elastic loops on its hands so it can hold things. It's missing an ear.
I think I may have posted about it before, but if so it was before 2016 (because I got bored looking through my past posts at that point). I believe it belonged to my mother's Auntie Edie, as with so many of the weird things she kept, but I could be wrong. Edie was born in 1905, so the chances are this is pre-WW1.
I don't know quite what to do with it just yet. Fortunately, the coffer has a key to it, so at least I can lock the beastie away to stop it from savaging us in our sleep.