David, I'm reading that light area as greyish wood caused by age and dirt. I feel that if this was brushed lightly and repeatedly with baby oil, with good hot-hand rubbings in between you'd have something that looked a lot different.
The carving is fairly crude, I'd guess somebody's work for himself.
As to age, I would not place it in the post WWII period. Wood that has not been subjected to sunlight can be very, very deceptive.
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