Spelter Base for Unknown Item - Can you identify it? in Knoxville, Tennessee For Sale

This item is about 8 inches across the “arms” and about the same high. The round base is about 4 inches across. there are no hallmarks or maker’s marks. It is light weight, so I thing spelter rather than nickel silver. It is engraved “Lizzie & Mollie.”
Any help in figuring out what this is will be appreciated. Email me, or join the discussion in I Antique Online, here: http://iantiqueonline.ning.com/group/whadjafind/forum/topics/what-is-this-item
There are no holes in the bottom, so that rules out a gas or electric lamp base, with no place to run the gas line or cord through it. The last 1/4 inch segment on each arm looks like something would have fit over it, rather than looking like a finished part that stays visible. The hole in that segment is threaded, and it is only as deep as the segment itself, about 1/34 inch. So something probably screwed down into the hole.
My idea is that it held an assembly holding a mirror that swivels, although that would require some additional height from the assembly, in order to clear the squirrel. Other suggestions include pads for hanging a hat, or a dish for serving nuts. (Squirrel, nuts... it took me a few minutes for that to sink in.)
As for its age, one person suggested that the desing on the cone-shaped part below the squirrel was Victorian, and that the thing may have sat upon its own pedestal. The Victorian period ended in xxxx with the queen’s death, or more likely started phasing out over the next few years.
Sell for $TBD. Email if you are interested, of if you have some idea of what it was.
________________________
View more and larger pictures of all my listings (and a few things that have not been listed yet) at my PicasaWeb Public Gallery. This is a safe site run by Google:
http://picasaweb.google.com/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx9
Email with any questions, request for full size pictures by email, or your name & phone number for contact and I will respond ASAP.
_______
Location: 671 (Google Maps) or 871 (Yahoo Maps) or 941 (physical address) East Tri-County Blvd. , Oliver Springs, about 2 miles from West Outer Dr. in Oak Ridge. This is a storage location so an appointment is required.