Cultural Trivia Contest: A Dragon

Answer the following question: What purpose did this figure of a dragon serve? To clarify, this is just a reproduction of the figure which doesn't show its original medium or location.

Comments

[Lorel]

Have no idea.....

[eva]

Now I might be imagining things, but to me that seems like a perfectly normal heraldic dragon - in that case though, it would be damn near impossible to guess the context of instance in question. Canvas, tapestry, furniture... a crest might appear in the most peculiar places, actually.
Then again, I might well be entirely wrong...

[noribori]

It's an old tool from the 15th century. The hands of the dragon were used to get sugar cubes from the sugar bowl. The wing of the dragon was used to scrape dog shit from the shoe soles. The little crown of the dragon was used to clean the clogged holes of the pepper shaker. They used incredible amounts of pepper those days to cover the smell of dog shit (the smell seemed to be everywhere).

[renke]

some kind of boundary stone seal?

I have no clue...

[Andrew]

@renke: Nice catch. That might explain the origin of this design, but not what it's used for and where it can be found. A hint: it was created in the late 15th century.

[renke]

Revelation 12?

[bla bla bla] And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red *dragon*, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven *crowns* upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. [bla bla bla]

[Markus]

I bet it's a lion, not a dragon and the game was "let's draw beer emblems and start off with Löwenbräu".