Antique sterling silver... bowl stand? Maybe?

[aquaholic]

I bought this a couple days ago at a garage sale and cannot for the life of me figure out what it is. I do have a feeling there's a piece missing, maybe a glass dish that sits in the top? As far as I can tell it was made by James Dixon and Sons in 1862 in Sheffield, England. The only thing I don't know about it is the purpose of this piece. It's about 8" across the top and 4" tall. The flower detail unscrews from the main piece with 2 wing nuts on the underside (for cleaning purposes?)

[MCB]

Hello and welcome to the Forum.

The apparently smooth profile of the interior top suggests another fitment slid inside the rim but whether this was a glass bowl is uncertain. Perhaps another Forum member will have seen a similar complete item to comment further on whether a part is missing and why the ornamentation on the base is detachable. Incidentally the detachable part would normally have its own hallmarks albeit abbreviated and be the same as the ones on the main body if the two parts had originally been together.

The Forum's Sheffield date letter chart (see British Hallmarks in the tool bar) points to the piece being assayed there in 1899-1900. Although this style of date letter was used at Goldsmiths Hall London in 1862-3 in these times each office ran an individual sequence.

Mike

[aquaholic]

Thank you so much, Mike! Especially for pointing out the date marks being different from city to city- I had no idea.

Thank you again!