By shop I just mean his own personal shop. He had all kinds of things in there. He came from a family of farmers, metal workers, gun smiths, etc. It is possible that someone in the family made saddlery. He had pack horses/mules and some very old saddlery.
There are no moving parts, and I suspect something is missing. The legs are strapped together with leather strips, as well as the beams on top. If you look at the front view of the angled beam and notice the hole where it meets the vertical piece, that hole goes all the way through and comes out under the smaller beam that points down. There is a channel under the beam on the back side of this thing that goes all the way to the ground. It looks like some type of string, cord, yarn is supposed to be pulled through from the back. My guess is that large quantities of string or whatever is supposed to come through the hole. I wish I had what is missing from under the longer beam. There are no holes under the seat itself indicating that anything goes there.