I want to thank everyone for their kind and informative responses that definately has given me good information on what to look for when accessing the item.

The backing/sheild is for the most part fairly flat except where the sheilds two upper tabs come in, then they start curving at a good rate upwards. Not sure if my photos showed this.

I really appreciated the wood's id and care for tips which would be done only to try to preserve the piece and reduce the chance of the boards sepeating even further.

Again..many thanks. Your helped me out a lot.

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