Hi
I've been off line for the past month, so just catching up on my what's-its. I drove across France to collect this one from Bordeaux, and had to spend 5 days there with a knackered clutch slave cylinder... Nice museums and a good flea market.... Back to the item: I now have a good idea what it it and how it works.... It's missing its drive cranck (that would fit on the end of the shaft opposite the flywheel)..... Over to you....

Must be a nut cracker........

Looks strong enough to emboss copper or brass for coins, tokens, or art work.

Is it a cork cutter or cork press?

wv tools you are pretty close.... but not for corks  - a cork cutter looks like this...

Is it a machine for making the screw on caps?  I did not think the French stooped that low with their wine.

Cutting off frogs legs perhaps?

wv tools - I would guess the age of this machine as late 18th to mid 19th century - long before the invention of screw caps... think wooden barrels.... The blade is tilted to about 5 degrees from the vertical, and the ratchet rotates the wheel, and thus the work-piece, about 1/40 of a revolution each cut.....

How about  a machine for making wooden bungs for the wine barrels.

Mike

Mike - you have it. An early example of a mechanised bung maker (a bung is as 'bonde' in French) - they fit into the side of a barrel, into a hole drilled into a wide stave - for filling and cleaning the barrel.

Never seen anything like it - it reminds me of the block making machinery designed by Mark Isambard Brunel for the Portsmouth dockyards during the Naploeonic Wars (c 1800)...
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portsmouth_Block_Mills  and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Isambard_Brunel

At some time someone overtightened the screw that holds the workpiece, and broke the casting - so a forged iron support was fitted to hold it in place....