Is there a way to determine what a given Container ref looks like? ie get a ref to the 3d model it uses?

What I dont want to do: A formlist of all possible "barrels" and formlist of all possible "Dwemer chests" etc... for one thing, it limits me to vanilla chests only, and for another, I'll shoot myself from the tedium of filling them all.

What I'm trying to do is have the player select an arbitrary chest, and swap it out for a MISC item the player can carry in their inventory, and drop in a new location. Obviously it would be nice if the MISC's 3D model happened to look like the chest/barrel/corpse/etc it spawned from.