I believe he had it custom-fabricated in the '50s or '60s, knowing this day would come and it would mess with you. "Yes, that's perfect. It's nothing that looks like a perfectly-functional something. It'll drive him up a wall."
Your job now is to pass it to a friend who will do the same thing to his children, then set about having a new custom-machined, worthless, inscrutable trinket made for your own heirs.
