Featured Small Silver dish with perforations, what is it?

Picked this up at a moving sale for .50 and it was mixed in with a bunch of pewter stuff. About 4 inches long and 2 3/8 wide with a bunch of fine perforations in the body. Only marking I've found is "Silver" and it does acid test for silver. Anyone have an idea what its used for or perhaps where its from?
Before polish


After polish

 

tea spoon holder...???
It's nice !!!

 

Used tea bag holder? The handle shape makes it suspect to be carrying something small

 

If something liquid is meant to drip out, wouldn't it need to sit in a saucer or such like.

 

ya, i thought that too.....so......mint dish ?

 

AHA - I see the perforations. How about an absinthe spoon to loach a sugar cube?

 

don't think so......those spoons look like spoons...and have to sit on the glass..

more of a candy or nut dish....imo...

 

All I can think of is a soap dish - the holes allow draining.

 

But then I 'd think the holes would be on the bottom as well?

 

they do seem to be on the bottom....

 

Hopefully warm it up a bit first - LOL!

 

that's a thought...!

 

Doubt its a grater as the holes are not sharp, also kind of hard to see it as a soap or spoon rest as the liquid would go right thru and pool underneath. Still trying to figure country of origin that uses "silver" to indicate metal content. Thanks for all the guesses so far!

 

another variation on a theme, and rebuttal: sugar sifter, except it's not spoonlike enough, and the sugar grains would get caught in the slots.


Those slot shapes hold the key, imo. The leaf pattern too. Sounds like a Sphinx riddle: what is leafy, needs straining, and sits on three legs?

coming back around to tea.

 

Soap dishes are often designed to let water drain from the soap - otherwise you end up with a mess. The three feet support this idea as well.

 

meets the criteria: handle, strainer, legs ... saucer.
Silver tea strainer with drip tray, design by Gustav Beran, Gerritsen & Van Kempen, Zeist, 1950

 

... except, for it to be a tea strainer, the design is awfully shallow. Can't get enough tea in the bowl or seat the bowl in a cup to let it steep. So, I'm now liking the idea it's a 'rest' of some sort... teaspoon, soap ... that only let a liquid out, rather than in. Vanity set item?