Forgotten vessels?

[Traintime]

Now this one requires a photo to accompany the query. It might be possible that Molly Malone found some additional use for all those extra cockleshells at the end of a hard day plying her trade, but I doubt Jurys College Green Hotel would have been a likely customer for oddball cups. Nor would the boys down at the milk bar have any reason to sip moloko plus from them..they hate drunks who sing Molly's anthem. In the view here, Satyrus Victorianus is probably not distrubuting waters from a famous African lake, but more likely is perched atop a fountain in an English garden. So we can rule out an admonition against the strong evils of partaking the fruits of the vine. But what's with the shell? Were there handless drinking vessels of this form at one time? Does this mean that a Wallace Baroque scalloped deep dish may have a new use? Was the artist simply taking license?