Fred Sinfield writes:
The opportunity to purchase a reasonably sized piece of antique silver at a leading auction house's general goods auction is rare.
As their rooms are nearby it is a good excuse to walk the dog and see if anything of interest is coming up. One item caught my eye so upon returning home out with the reference books to try to trace the maker – but to no avail.
Acquired the piece as I had expected competition but I was the only one willing to take the chance that it was identifiable. With the bowl and a pile of auction catalogues, the long process of thumbing through these eventually proved successful.
Had to go back to a Sotheby's New York “Sale of Important English and Continental Silver.” of 19th April 1991. The illustrated description of Lot 42 and the bowl next to me was very similar to “An Important Silver Oval Sugar Bowl, North Italian, Third Quarter 18th Century, Probably Modena, of lobed and fluted oval form, the rim applied with eight cast openwork cartouche-shaped spoon holders, conforming pedestal foot, marked on the base rim with an eagle an a ? a lion holding a shield, 10ozs, length 16.5cm.” that realised $1650+.
The main differences between the two bowls being four spoon holders, 13.5cms and weighing 225grams.
The maker “MG' was traced to Mark 821 in “I Marchi dell'Argenteria Italiana.”
The other mark on the base is probably the Town Mark of Venice as illustrated in Marc Rosenberg “Der Goldschmiede Merkzeichen. VI Band.” Mark 7485.
Fred Sinfield.

Sotheby's New York, 19th April 1991
Important Oval Sugar Bowl, North Italian, Third Quarter 18th Century

silver sugar bowl with four spoon holders

sugar bowl marks

The idea of Fred Sinfield is correct. The silver sugar bowl was made in Venice in the second half of 18th century.
The 'lion' is the mark of the ancient Repubblica di Venezia (Republic of Venice - Italy) and represents a winged lion's head holding a Gospel.
'The lion' is the emblem on Venice flag representing the symbol of its Patron, St. Mark Evangelist, It holds a Gospel (not a shield) with a latin inscription PAX TIBI MARCE EVANGELISTA MEUS (Peace to Mark, My Evangelist).

The mark M G isn't a maker mark but the assayer mark ('Toccador' or 'Sazador in Zecca'). There are many silver pieces with this mark (coffee pots, trays, sugar bowls, salvers on foot) but the assayer is unidentified.

Usually these sugar bowls were coupled to spoons with a shape very similar to English 'fiddle thread' and this style was widely used in Venice well on 19th century.
Below there are the photos of four Venetian spoons of the beginning of 19th century belonging to my private collection (www.silvercollection.it)