An Odd Bit of Whimsey

I ran across this on the web the other day.

A rather odd dish....I wish I knew the dimensions. At first glance, you would never guess it is a covered tureen, as the all-too-skimpy notation says. The shell form is the handle.

Someone or several someones have taken good care of it, since the fish head and tail are still intact. And the tureen was being offered at auction.

From what I can tell, the lid extends 3 plates down. There is a slight variation in the rim.

The other odd thing is the flower decoration on the stacked 'plate edges' ; as if those edges would produce a pattern. And yet, somehow, we accept it at first.