e_r, I believe that's a spittoon on a column. Here's a more elegant version:
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Elevated spittoons/cuspidors of this sort are most familiar from dentist's offices--"Rinse, and spit!"--though I'd say it has been twenty or thirty years since I've seen one in use in a dentist's office. I used to find the sound of the swirling water to be soothing (but of course the kind in the lunch room didn't have running water in it).