Anglo-Norman Limestone Font

CIRCA 12TH CENTURY A.D.

37 1/2 in. (299 kg total, 95 cm).

A large carved pale ochre limestone font in three sections comprising: a discoid stepped base, plain columnar shaft, and barrel-shaped bowl with incised circumferential rings to the outer face; available to view at our Harwich head office only.

Provenance

From Sussex, UK.
Private collection formed in the 1960s.
Oswestry, Shropshire, UK, collection.
Ex Howell collection.

Accompanied by an off-print: McClain, Aleksandra Baptism and Burial in Stone: Materializing Pastoral Care in Anglo-Norman England, Volume 7, 2018, p.10, fig.4, where it shows a very similar example of 12th century in date from Ellerburn Church.
Accompanied by an Art Loss Register certificate no.S00156424.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate no.11412-193070.

Literature

Cf. a very similar 12th century font from Ellerburn, Ryedale, North Yorkshire in McClain, A., Baptism and Burial in Stone: Materializing Pastoral Care in Anglo-Norman England, Volume 7, 2018, p.10, fig.4; and a circular font bowl in Tollerton St. Peter, Southwell and Nottingham Church; another round font believed to be Norman or Anglo-Saxon in Lydford Church of St. Pedrock, Okehampton, West Devon; also see Zarnecki, G., Holt, J. & Holland, T., English Romanesque Art 1066-1200, London, 1984, for discussion.

CONDITION

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LOT 1350