Pewter mixing kit - medicines or metal, possibly?

[digitalsatori]

My dad gave this to me, but never said where he received it. I don't know what it is, but we had a family friend who knows enough about antiques to be dangerous. She said it was pewter and possibly from the 1700s; but not a makeup kit. It could be a mixing kit for medicine or melt down silver, gold or other metals?

There are no markings or any indication of ownership or manufacture.

Can anyone give a bit of insight? I can add more pictures if needed.

Thanks!

 

[Tony in SC]

It is not for melting any type of metal, it would melt also. I'm leaning toward makeup, maybe medicine containers. Tony

 

[Broken knee]

Could it be for tea or spices?
Broken Knee

 

[Lucas]

Is it pewter? Looks like plated copper to me?

Most likely spices, my guess is it was made someplace between Turkey and India.

 

[digitalsatori]

Thanks for the tips, everyone! It is quite possible it is plated copper; nothing I've found on the internet when searching for 'pewter' looks anything like it.

I'll keep looking on my end as well; I will post results if I find anything!

 

[ipsilateral]

I'm with Lucas on the origin. Embossed plated copper. Not so early as 1700's based on the cotter pins fastening it IMO. Older, but not that old. Loos like a spice kit to me.

 

[jscorpio]

I was intrigued by this when it was first posted. I haven't found an identical item, but the one in the link is obviously intended for the same purpose (IMO). It looks like some sort of serving set for tea or spiced drinks maybe, as others have suggested. When I look at it, I see the large lid that covers the smaller containers being used as a sort of serving tray with the smaller cylindrical containers storing the spices or tea and the other two containers being used to drink from. The 'upside down' lids would be used as some sort of coaster or saucer to keep the hot contents from burning your hands. I'll keep looking for more info, but thought this might help in a positive ID.

http://www.aladdinantiques.com/phdi/p1.nsf/supppages/aladdin?opendocument&part=5

 

[jscorpio]

I was intrigued by this when it was first posted. I haven't found an identical item, but the one in the link is obviously intended for the same purpose (IMO). It looks like some sort of serving set for tea or spiced drinks maybe, as others have suggested. When I look at it, I see the large lid that covers the smaller containers being used as a sort of serving tray with the smaller cylindrical containers storing the spices or tea and the other two containers being used to drink from. The 'upside down' lids would be used as some sort of coaster or saucer to keep the hot contents from burning your hands. I'll keep looking for more info, but thought this might help in a positive ID.

http://www.aladdinantiques.com/phdi/p1.nsf/supppages/aladdin?opendocument&part=5

Wow was I way off! Should have listened to the experts Someone stop me when my imagination runs out of control Here are a couple of more links and then I'm tapped out on this one. Thanks for posting it digitalsatori, I had a lot of fun with it.

http://www.3worlds.co.uk/Pages/Gallery-8-Other.html (second item on this page)
http://www.trocadero.com/AMP/items/757485/item757485store.html