Do the casters need oiling?

Older brass casters often seize up with trapped dust and carpet fibres. You can apply a tiny drop of light machine oil to the central pin. Wipe away any excess immediately so it does not mark your floors. If the wheel remains stiff, it is better to lift the piece rather than force it to roll.

My grandmother has one with what looks like a leather top instead of the wooden slats, what was this used for in the house?

That is a Canterbury what-not, a hybrid form that appeared in the mid-nineteenth century. The flat upholstered or veneered top served as a small occasional table for a lamp or teacup. The music or magazine dividers sit on the shelf directly below the top. It was a practical space-saving design for smaller parlours.

How are the slats fixed?

Early makers used tiny mortise and tenon joints to secure the delicate uprights into the base rail. Later pieces often rely on simple dowel pegs glued into drilled holes.

There are two shallow drawers at the bottom of the piece but they seem to share one wide front, why did they build it this way?

A single drawer front detailed to look like two separate drawers is a common visual trick. It maintains the symmetry of the piece while providing one wide storage space. Cabinetmakers knew a single drawer was far more practical for storing long batons and tuning forks. True double drawers on a small frame waste internal space with the central divider.

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Antique Canterbury from the 19th Century

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An antique Canterbury is a low, freestanding rack divided by wooden partitions, originally designed to sit beside a piano to hold bound volumes and loose sheets of music.