Want to thank Roger for giving me a 'heads up'!
fwiw this is what I generally call a Posnet on its way to being a saucepot. The Posnets were made in both CI, & some of the early ones(esp. English) in 'Bellmetal'(something that they, not surprisingly, made bells out of, & was midway between bronze & brass -- American ones being sometimes very expensive)
The early Posnets ranged in size from 'practice size' toys all the way up to about a quart or so. In addition to their 3(typically tri-angular) feet, the handle was solid(generally flat on top, & tri-angular underneath, slanting in at the end), but toward the end of their time(~1850s?) the handles were broadened & started to have 'hanging holes'.
They likely became obsolete when the stove majorly took over from the hearth -- probably not much extending beyond the 1880s? Since this is a Shepard piece, there is a real possibility of getting an approximate date.
Do think that it is a cooking saucepot -- & finding ones with the spout is not all that frequent -- so if it cleans up ok, its a quite nice piece!
