A Chocolate Cruet Set?

This is a favourite market find.

It came from the Surry Hills market here in Sydney about five years ago.

I had never seen a cruet like it before.

It is unusual in that it has three separate sections making up the total object: there is a stand, six cups and six spoons.

My first job was to work out what the cups and stand were meant for. After some research I worked out that the cups were of the shape of chocolate cups. They are marked with the puce Mintons mark crowned and England. This will date them to 1901 at the latest.
The stand has a stamped mark indicating Hardy Brothers/ Sydney & Brisbane/ Made in England. So they are after 1894 when Hardy Brothers opened in Brisbane. Besides that is registration number 31089.
The spoons are marked William Hutton & Sons with the “Crossed ARROWS” mark used after after 1900 when they moved to Creswick
The spoons are an individual shape different to tea and coffee spoons and are 13 cm (5.1 ins) long.

Putting it all together gives a date of 1901: the year of Australia’s Federation.