What on earth is this for?

Your guess is good as mine on this one - never seen one b4 ....  what is it?





The glass wavy rim bowl  has an interesting milky luminosity

Some marks on the leaf holder...





Please help someone.. : )

tea light holder?

Thle marks on the tray are simply the letters EPNS, but in a highly stylised font to resemble silver marks. When this was made, back in the early 20thC, most houses were dimly lit, gas or candles usually, so these faux-marks would often be mistaken for the real thing when nosy guests had a casual glance. A lot of cutlery from this period had similar and often more elaborate marks, carefully disguising the letters.
The vaseline-glass bowl was probably intended for nuts or sweets to be passed around the table.

bonbon/sweet bowl?

Cocaine?

lmao - hahahah -

thanks for suggestions all - most interesting especially Grumpy G much appreciated, from what you're saying I'm gob-smacked it's in such good nick.... not a scratch on the bowl.. the bowl is a little small but yep possibly could have bon-bons in - Would it be English with the EPNS marks or more likely to be overseas?

Is there a name for the contraption?

Almost certainly British, maybe late 19th C.
The bowl might be vaseline glass, try a UV light on it.

As dd said above, almost certainly British and probably Sheffield-made. The rapidly expanding middle-class were determined to show off their wealth and status, even if it meant a little subterfuge to pretend that their 'silverware' was the equal of that of the upper-classes.
Some were very convincing: the following picture is a set of faux marks on the blade of an early 20thC. cake knife, and without the use of an eyepiece could easily be mistaken for the real thing. One of the marks could almost be a leopard's head, another a date letter, and there's also the maker's mark 'B&Co'. The engraving on the blade and faux-ivory handle help with the allusion to something better than it really is.







They were strange times indeed, and this sort of thing was just the tip of the iceberg when it came to the lengths that the middle-classes would go to to maintain a facade of wealth rather than lose face and risk being thought of as 'inferior' to their peers.

Spooooky - It shines a really spooky halloween flurescent green under UV Light