Thanks for your comments; I had thought about what both of you have said about the reddish hue possibly being caused by an ambient color coming from another object being reflected on the metal of the mortar, but I looked long and hard at the photo and I finally decided (though I could be wrong) that was the color of the metal itself. I just finished putting red brass (made from plumbing connections) tyres on four trucks for a naval carriage I've been working on, and the color of this mortar echoes exactly the color of the tyres I just cut, sanded, and polished.
I'll say again, I'm certainly no expert on this subject, but this so called red patina that some say develops on bronze and/or brass I'll have to admit I've never witnessed. I've got a few brass barreled pieces and I have never seen oxidation cause a red tint on any of them, and I have many photos of ordnance, much of which are definately of guns made by historic bronze founders using the classic gun metal recipe of 90% copper and 10% tin, (along with some other trace elements and minute ammounts of other metals that different makers purposelly added to their alloys) and havent seen this color in them either. I have definitely seen the rich reddish-brown patina that will in time develop on bronze pieces but never this pink-red hue (like a new penny).
Yes, there have been some enjoyable past threads on the subject of discerning brass from bronze and also the suitability of these metals being used for making ordnance. The first part of the preceding sentence was covered by GG (I hope George doesn't mind if I paraphrase him) when he said he didn't think it was that easy a task to identify bronze as opposed to brass by simply eyeballing the metals and that he thought the only sure way was to have the metal tested. I agree a hundred percent with what he said on that topic.
There's no question that discussing modern alloys of bronze and/or brass is a complicated topic, there are alloys now being made that utelize equal amounts of tin and zinc and while this alloy is usually referred to as bronze it could just as easily be called brass.
From Spencer Tucker's "Arming the Fleet": "Bronze (ninety parts copper and ten tin) continued for some time to be the favorite metal for cannon, because it stood the shock of discharge better than iron and was easier to cast. (Increasing the proportion of tin hardened bronze but also made it more brittle; decreasing the amount of tin made the metal too soft for cannon and also more elastic.)" One doesn't have to be an expert to comprehend the meaning of that statement; with an alloy composed of the wrong ammount of metals things could quickly become hazardous to your health and well being.
I don't know, in the final analysis I suppose it was just some internal warning flag that popped up that made me hesitant to buy the mortar. In any event it's a done deal and it's gone, but I did get something else and when it arrives it will cheer me up.
Dan; you drink whatever you want to, whenever you feel like it, and damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!