Nassau 1899 H&E Piece - Not sure what it is

[hpidaves]

This Holmes & Edwards Nassau (1899) piece measures 5-5/8", but I'm not sure what it is. It somewhat resembles a pea server, but seems to short.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

[Traintime]

Ahh, but was the handle altered? It appears to first sweep up like a sugar ladle would, but then it is creased down again. (If a ladle, the ridges could trap out lumps while allowing fines to pass down through the holes. A smaller spoon size version would be a sugar sifter and the shell design would not be uncommon there.) Since you can't get a catalogue for the specific pattern by this maker, perhaps a similar pattern in that era by another maker might yield a catalog page with like pieces...Sterling Flatware Fashions has posted a number of viewable pages...it's a lot of work somedays! But then again...Cheryl will probably drop in at some point and have an immediate answer to knock us all out of our socks.

[hpidaves]

The photos for this post have been dropped by the host, so I thought I would post new ones, along with a new guess as to the piece type:





Anyone think it might be a julep strainer?

I await your thoughts.

Regards,
Dave

[Traintime]

Site queenofsienna (no direct links rule) has a barwares entry which shows some examples of juleps in various patterns. There are some images from old catalogue pages included.