What is this huge thing?

Silverplate from Sheffield, but I can't imagine what this would have been used for? It is quite large, almost 12 in high, but a mostly hollow interior base and a screw on top to hold a small amount of something. No holes in the top; it must be unscrewed to get at the contents (which had a disintegrated rubber gasket to seal it). Would this have been the largest possible container to hold a small amount of salt, that needed to be unscrewed to get at it? I don't understand??

 

vinegar ...?

 

Looks like a funeral vase missing the base.

 

Looks like someone engraved it with a dull screw driver,leaving the guide lines in not professional.

 

Trophy base. Looks more like planished pewter to me than silver. Early 20th. G D & S was added by whoever bought it, no decent maker would have done that punch work.

 

I can't see it as a trophy base? Why would it have a hollow opening with a tightly fitting cover with rubber gasket (lid was stuck until I put it in boiling water).

You could be right about the manufacturer mark, but I don't know why anyone would bother to add the maker marking. If correct it shows it was made by James Dixon after 1920 which is when the Ltd was added to the company name. I think my pics were misleading since I didn't show how tiny that writing is (corrected below) - it is less than one mm tall. And it would have been hand done even if done at the factory since it couldn't be stamped on the hammered surface.

I was also wrong about how much liquid or powder it holds when the top is removed. It is only 7cm deep to the bottom, except the center is not the real bottom since the sides slope away and are much deeper. So it really holds 1-1/3 cup (0.32 liter) which is much more than I thought. Water doesn't come out of it easily so maybe for a solid and not liquid - small opening so it glugs and sputters.

 

Dixon were a high end maker. I honestly can't see them marking something as poorly as that. Hand done marks would have been done with a proper engraving tool. I think it's whoever owned it.

I also don't think this is as late as the 1920s: that hammered and planished thing was big late 19th into early 20th, as part of our Arts and Crafts movement. Still think it looks pewter.

It occurs to me that this may have been meant to be weighted with sand - if not a troph then some other kind of stand, such as a lamp base. I can't see it being salt: that corrodes both silver and plate, so it ought to have had a liner if it were meant for that.

 

look....I'm not saying this has to be....what it is....but I grew up with this in every Italian resto, and every french fry place in the Provence ....
& you had to shake the buggers to get anything out of them !!!!

So, sure...I could be wrong...........but it's what I see !

 

You'd not put oil or vinegar in silver plate though - or pewter, for that matter.