$2...$435?

It was something like a couple of months ago when I first became interested in thrifting brass/gold candlesticks. I saw a picture in a book of a cluster of brass/gold candlesticks holding orange tapered candles and the image was forever with me. It seemed so elegant, and usually I have nothing to do with metals - especially gold and brass. But with the orange, altogether it was such a good color combination. It's now part of my thrifting routine to venture to the brass/gold candlestick section and see what I can find.

Outwardly, there is nothing impressive about these two candlesticks. But when I picked one of them up, I noticed how heavy it was. Since I have a kitten that likes to explore, I like heavy things. I turned it upside down to see how it was held together and if there were any markings (usually all of these types of things are made in India). My eye caught a tiny and well-faded piece of masking tape that was adhered to the bottom side of one of the candlesticks.

$435.00
AOE dsp

The same letters corresponded to others written onto the candlestick. It appeared that these may have come, originally, from an antique mall or shop. That sold it for me. I brought them home for $1 each.

At home, I inspected them closer. They were handmade, folks! MEXI is stamped into the bottom of each candlestick, but Google searches have been fruitless - I can only guess that these were made in Mexico? But then it would seem strange they were once valued at $435.00 if that were the case...I don't know. Also, I made the assumption that they were just brass, but it turns out they might be something else. Gold? Gold-plated? I just don't know my metals. Any ideas would be a great help.

For the meantime, I'm going to keep them and enjoy them and maybe someday I'll get to the bottom of the mystery.