Featured Basket brooch.....

This brooch was in a lot of mixed jewellery I bought some time ago & I've only just got around to having a proper look at it. The leaves and beads are glass - some beads were pearlised but have lost a lot of their coating. They are threaded on wire which has been wrapped around the base of the basket to secure them. It looks like a marriage to me as I can't imagine it would have originally been sold with the wire showing? The back rim of the basket is flat and the front edge is fluted - the whole thing looks like it has been squashed to make it flatter but if it were pulled back into a proper basket shape (round? oval?) it would look very odd as a brooch - too sticky-outy!
There is some sort of mark/writing on the trombone clasp but I can't make it out. I've tried magnifying it, enlarging it, changing the image to black & white but just can't see what it is. At first I thought it was just scratches but there are definitely letters - some capitals & some lower case, one looks like an H or an M to me.

 

It looks as though the adornment was added later. I would look closely for better marks as it looks to be gold. Maybe on the stick pin itself?

 

Thanks for your reply. I think someone added the beads too - they are just not "right" especially with that wire! It does have the look & feel of gold but I have been over it very carefully and cannot find anything but the marks on the clasp.

 

The marks look like someone held the trombone hinge with pliers.

 

The basket looks bent inwards as well.