I have taken it apart today to see if I can find any more info. The small 3 jaw chuck is actually on a 5c collet adapter. If you look at the 2nd pic, you can see the "hand tightening" device on the opposite end to the chuck, it has a drawbar fitted and when slackened off a few turns, the chuck can be knocked out. This then leaves the ability to put any of the collets I found in the box in and tightened up by hand. These are the collets I thought were maybe Myford collets but now I'm sure they are 5c. This now leads me to believe it was maybe some sort of mini lathe, maybe a jewellers lathe?

The quest continues