Help identify what this was used for?

[wiley]

Hope this is the right place for this. I have two of these and am not sure what they were made for. No hallmarks but marked "sterling".

Thanks in advance. Link to pic...

http://373721747822626547.weebly.com

[dognose]

Hi,

Please post an image of the mark, even if it is only 'Sterling'.

You are far more likely to get a response if you embed your images. Few people will click on links.

Trev.

[davidross]

Looks like a salt cellar, but I think it has nothing to do with Asia.

As Trev has asked, please post an image of the mark.

Hopefully a moderator will move it to the appropriate Forum, most like American.

DR

[dragonflywink]

It's a salt, shown in Heacock & Johnson's '5000 Open Salts' (1982), #4319, described as, "Sterling, hallmarked Italy or Portugal, age unknown, just over 2" high" (it's a good reference, but has a number of errors in silver attribution). Have seen quite a few of these somewhat poorly cast pieces in the last 30 or so years, usually just marked 'Sterling', often paired with various poorly cast salt spoons - suspect they are fairly recent recasts of an older piece, perhaps German or Dutch...

~Cheryl

[wiley]

Thanks. You guys are great here. I coudldn't quite figure out how the get the image to embed, sorry.