[BobBlakely]

I believe you're correct, especially as this is what I suspected - and especially since I paid very, very little for this piece. It was one of those, "How can you possibly go wrong as long as it shoots." prices." FYI, I believe the coloring is essentially even and variations you see are from angle of the primary light source incident to the subject. Also, the beveling you mention is actually quite even to the eye. What you see as beveling on one sude and not (or less) on the other is also a trick of poor lighting for this purpose, in as much as the primary lighting comes from photo right and glares photo right.

Next time I photograph something like this, I'll do it in a proper light box.

Some machining marks I believe are original in as much as I've seen them many times before on other machined items. At the rear you will see sharply defined circular marks in the surface. I used see these on machined surfaces that were not completely buffed out. They were from the milling process and the fine sharp circle show you the size of the milling bit.