Dave — I've checked Silber & Fleming. There is nothing exactly like it, but it is, perhaps, worth noting that shell-shaped items are always described as spoon warmers in metal, and flower holders or components of flower stands in glass.
I don't see how it could contain enough hot water long enough for it to function as a spoon warmer.
And I think it is too complicated for a salt.
My first reaction on seeing your photograph was that it was a lovely miniature flower holder or epergne. I can visualise these being sold to the public singly, or in sets of six, one for each place setting, together with a matching elaborate table centre. Another more obvious use is in the Lyons Corner House coffee shop setting as a miniature posy holder to decorate the table for two, a custom still kept today, albeit rather less elaborately. The handle on the one on eBay convinces me that it was for the coffee shop setting, either on land (fresh flowers) or on an ocean liner (artificial flowers). I wonder how many of these were kept as precious souvenirs of that beautiful and romantic first
Brief Encounter.
There seems to be a general reluctance on this message board to consider commercial use, when it seems to me that that was where the bulk of the spending power was. I don't know why.
As you may have noticed, I am not keen on posting on topics that contain references to live auctions, nor on those that cite references to old authorities for whom "Don't know" was an unacceptable attribution. I seem to have broken both of my own rules here!
Bernard C.
Topic: spoon warmer or toothpick holder? Brit help needed! (Read 3716 times)
