Octagonal Box. Purpose...unknown?

I received a stack of this wood from my sister and wanted to build her something as thanks. I have never done anything shaped as an octagon, and haven’t seen one on here before either.

I believe the wood is Australian Cypress, which is very beautiful. I made sure to keep the grain orientation, though of course by luck one of the pictures was of the end-to-end seam, great luck right?

The pegs you see extruding through the inside and to the bottom were a fun add on and made the box much stronger. This was a fun project, though getting the angles dead on was a challenge.

By the way its current purpose is holding letters and bills, which though unintended seems to work well for my sister and her husband.

-- -Joshuah