Okay, that makes sense now. I'd never seen one before, but now after a bit of googling and youtubing, I can see how useful they could be to folks doing leatherwork.
So anyhow, what I found out was that these benches are often called Stitching Horses, or even sometimes Stitching Ponies.
Back in 1864 there was a patent issued for a "Saddler's Stitching-Horse", and in the patent text the little zigzag piece as you call it was referred to as a "catch plate." (Read the paragraph about 3/4 of the way down)
Link =
https://www.google.com/patents/US42020Close up picture of another style catch plate in use: