Trentham Art Ware by Devonshire Potteries Ltd, Bovey Tracey

Hi,
Hoping someone might know what this might be - it was purchased many years ago and I still don't know what it is!
-  possibly a shop window/counter display or a very distinctive posy vase?....suggestions please!
I'm assuming that it is genuinely a Trentham piece as the label on the front suggests - feel free to correct me if you know otherwise.

It appears to be a combination piece made up of an upright plate with a stepped rim and two large off-centre piercings - a perfectly circular hole (dia. ca.2.5 /exactly 1 inch ) above a semi-circular cut-out, - fastened at a slight backwards-leaning angle to a small ribbed trough.
(looks "art-deco" in style but possibly later date?)

The whole object is covered in a satin-black glaze apart from the base which is cream-coloured (ground).(see photos)

There are 3 labels - a black and silver  (metallised?) sticker attached to the front: "Trentham ART WARE Made In Devon"
The trough at the rear shows "John Pinches acme labels horticultural sundries" (& address) - possibly the retailer?
- and a hand-written sticker on the base showing 12/6D - presumably the pre-decimal price (= 62.5p !)
There are no other impressed marks or backstamp -

I'm aware that Trentham did other objects in this satin-black glaze (e.g. animal figurines - the best known being a bull) - when did they start using this glaze?.
I'm also a bit confused regarding the Beswick connection (one website suggests Beswick produced items for Trentham in Nottingham! - but this label says "made in Devon")- or was this a different Trentham company?

Dimensions: the "plate" is 190mm (7.5in) in diameter and is raised by a further 50mm where affixed to the base
the  "trough" tapers slightly from top (90mm) to bottom (110mm) (approx)
the "plate" is quite thick (est. abt 10mm) and the whole thing weighs almost exactly 500g

Thanks in advance.

Most peculiar. Horticultural sundries might be a clue.
The "decorative" side of the plate suggests the "box" was at the back,
so maybe for growing something in, and whatever it was, fed though the holes,
to emerge at the front. With no drainage, I wonder it it could be for bulbs of
some sort.

The missing link seems to be a Nottingham company called G. Hardy & Co. Acording to Val Baynton's book on Beswick:
"Also new [in 1933] was a range called Trentham Art Ware, which was designed and made by Beswick and sold exclusively by G. Hardy and Co, a Nottingham based general ceramic wholesaler." The agreement with Hardy's ended in 1941, after which some of the shapes contined to be made with the Beswick backstamp. Though I imagine this can only have been for export, given the wartime regulations.
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ip7vCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT19&lpg=PT19&dq

In 1954, however, according to the Torquay Potteries website, G. Hardy and Co took over the former Devonshire Potteries factory at Bovey Tracey to produce "Trentham Art Ware". Production continued until 1968:

https://torquaypottery.info/about/potteries-in-torquay-area/devonshire-potteries

Surely for displaying some plant or growing some type of plant..but which

Could even be Cress, on the kitchen windowsill.

I've seen similarly constructed pieces at craft fairs, a few years ago now. They were for displaying dry/silk flowers as I remember

I am in the process of tidying up the Trentham art ware threads.

HB's excellent research, above,
gives us the information, though the entry in Goddens,
which is probably out of date, suggests a 1959 date for
Trentham art ware production at the Devonshire potteries.

We now have an example of the Devon sticker, and one
can now attribute the larger vessels with the printed marks,
and the impressed numbers to being produced by Beswick,
from c1933-41.

Here's another piece of Trentham Art Ware made in Devon.

Thanks Mal, good to have another example.
It does beg the question if this was from a Beswick mould.

I have had a couple of Trentham animals in the past, cows I think. They were similar in size and style to Coopercraft and Melbaware rather than the smaller and more finely detailed beswick ones.