Brass Eagle

I've just spotted an image of a brass eagle on a ball.
The eagle design is different, but how it stands up on a ball I find confusing.
Just wondering if it is balanced in some way and wobbles.

Just a thought, that this was originally like that and some one took a hacksaw to it to give it a flat base.

 

Thats the reason I suggested that it might have been on a flag pole at one time or another. The eagle and the ball were cast as one, and then the ball fitted nicely over the top of the pole.

How I enjoy topics such as this one!

 

Ahh, so you think it might have had a hole in the ball?
And that would then fit on a metal dowel on the top of the pole.

 

Something like this I would have expected...

 

That looks about right.
Where did you get that image?

 

Looking for something that shows how they are attached, I googled eagle flag pole toppers.

 

Thanks I think you might have nailed it, unless some one comes up with some thing more likely.
The mystery remains of what flag pole.

I never met my grandfather, he died before I was born, but I do know he was in the cavalry before the 1st WW.
He then ended up in the trenches during the war.
He survived and spent his remaining years quietly as a painter and decorator.
I've always wondered if it was something he kept as a memento of his military life.

 

He might well have kept it as a memento of his military life.

If anyone here is a member of Ancestry, then they could perhaps check to see if his military records still exist, although the vast majority of these were destroyed in a german air raid in 1940. If they did, they will give you his service numbers (he could have had two), regiment, where he served, as well as lots of other info Then, armed with that info you could ask on a forum called "Long Long Trail" or similar. The guys on there are brilliant, and will be able to tell you if there is a military connection, irrespective of its country of origin.

 

I'll find out what my sister knows, she did one of those family tree investigations a few years ago, but I don't think she went into service records of any one in the family.

Thanks everyone for your input, a little nearer finding out.
Of course it's possible my grandmother just bought it at a second hand shop or some one in the family 'half inched' it a long time ago.

 

Old fire engine bell finial?

 

The plot thickens.

 

"Boys brigade" of what?

 

I bet you played the bagpipes.

 

You've got to have a lot of wind to do that