Salt & Pepper set-Silver Basket Painted?

[vbcepoloway]

Have another curious little item here. It is a Salt & Pepper set; the tops of the shakers are silver, and polished up not too bad. The glass portion of the shakers is an engraved flower pattern that my wife says closely resembles an item her grandmother had from the early 1900's. Here's the photos for you to view:

http://img104.imagevenue.com/img.php?lo ... 06_012.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://img12.imagevenue.com/img.php?loc ... 06_013.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://img9.imagevenue.com/img.php?loc= ... 06_019.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://img105.imagevenue.com/img.php?lo ... 06_020.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The thing that strikes me as odd, is that on the basket that holds the shakers, are the words "SILVER PLATED". That's all, no other identifying marks, words, nothing. It's like a small checkerboard pattern on the bottom if that helps at all.
Anyways, I would have to guess that since it says "silver plated", and the basket is now white, as you can see in the photos, that somewhere in this item's lifetime, someone took it upon themselves to "brighten up" the items with a little paint job? The bottoms of the little brass buttons on the bottom of the basket show little flecks of brass color where the paint has worn through or has a small chip or two gone, as does the inside bottom of the basket where presumably the shakers have worn the paint down a little.
So if this is indeed painted, is it adviseable to try and remove the paint? It would be my guess that it was either an oil-based or latex paint, most likely oil-based. Would it possibly look worse if the paint was removed, (possibly being the reason it was painted in the first place?). If paint removal is OK, anybody have any recommendations on a SAFE remover?
Thanks for any help any of you can offer with this little set; you've been great in the past, and I sure appreciate your input on this Forum.
Brent

[vbcepoloway]

Not much luck identifying this so far. Took another photo of the bottom of the basket that shows the "Silver Plated" stamp; don't know if this will help any, but sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. It's a pretty little set, but really have no more info than it's from somewhere here in rural Alabama. Thanks.
Brent

http://img.auctiva.com/imgdata/1/2/0/3/ ... 0841_o.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;