As everyone else has said, it is a forge.
Earlier this year I went to a blacksmithing school, no not farrier work, I will never shoe a horse, to old for that. Now I know enough to be dangerous with a piece of hot iron, but it sure is fun building things.
Spent two hours yesterday making some tooling for the anvil. I think a lot of my Christmas is going to be hand made this year.
If you want to see what is being done in the blacksmithing world today, go to iforgeiron.com, forgemagic.com, or anvilfire.com. From Anvilfire go to the ABANA (Artist Blacksmith Association of North America) website and be completely blown away by what you can do with iron today.
If you want to see a value, go to ebay, do a search for blacksmith tools, blacksmith forge, or blacksmith anvil you would be surprised what is out there.
To keep those gears turning, put a lightweight oil in the oil hole. There is an on going discussion as to what is best, the ideas range from ATF to 90 weight. But if you turn for any length of time, the heavier oils sure wear out your arm in a hurry. Just be forewarned, those things leak, there is more than one reason it is called blacksmithing.
I have two forges, one is a champion, the other a Canedy Otto, but if you want to clean up the 'junk', let me know. To me it would be a treasure. I am looking for something more portable than the monsters I have.