08-15-2006, 02:47 PM
Paul,
I agree that this is unlikely to be the base of an artillery piece but I have to disagree about the millstone - even some "modern" millstones have square eyes. This is to fit a metal support piece called the millrind.
If you look at heraldry there is a charge called a millrind. In English heraldic terms this is the fer de moline, and is a common charge in European heraldry. It is called anille in modern French blazon, but the English term clearly comes from the French (fer de moulin), meaning millrind (defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as "the iron which supports the upper millstone of a mill, and carries the eye which rests upon the end of the mill spindle"). From this charge comes the term Cross moline, a cross each of the arms of which terminates in two expanded and curved branches resembling the extremities of a millrind.
I agree that this is unlikely to be the base of an artillery piece but I have to disagree about the millstone - even some "modern" millstones have square eyes. This is to fit a metal support piece called the millrind.
If you look at heraldry there is a charge called a millrind. In English heraldic terms this is the fer de moline, and is a common charge in European heraldry. It is called anille in modern French blazon, but the English term clearly comes from the French (fer de moulin), meaning millrind (defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as "the iron which supports the upper millstone of a mill, and carries the eye which rests upon the end of the mill spindle"). From this charge comes the term Cross moline, a cross each of the arms of which terminates in two expanded and curved branches resembling the extremities of a millrind.
Peter Raftos
