Cuby nr. Tregony / Cubye / Sen Kubi / St Cuby-Tregony

Noted in Lysons (1806-1833) as one of a group of Cornish fonts that includes Bodmin, “St. Austell, St. Columb-Minor, Crantock, Cuby, St. Dennis, St. Gorran, Luxulion, Newlyn, Roche, Southill, Tintagell, Veryan, and St. Wen”. Lewis' Dictionary of 1848 mentions "a font curiously sculptured." Described and illustrated in Bond (1908): Norman polypod baptismal font of the 13th century with non-constructional pillars; of a group of Cornish fonts that Bond (ibid.) describes as "quite sui generis", with "a physiognomy quite their own" that managed to survive since the 12th into the 15th century. Listed in Cox (1912) as one of a group "of characteristically Cornish design […] Good square Norm[an], font, supported by central and 4 corner shafts, with angels' heads as capitals ; bowl diversely ornamented, on W. a dragon, and on N. a conventional lily." Noted in Pevsner (1970): "Font. Late Norman, Bodmin type, with the same heads at the corners, and motifs of animals, knots, and trees of life between." The St. Cuby font has, like the others of this type, a hemispheric bowl resting on a central shaft and four non-constructional colonnettes at the corners; these reach all the way to the top of the basin. The top pillars of the corner shafts have winged heads; the basin and underbowl sides have ornamentation that includes schematic animals, symbols (cross, plant, flower) and several other motifs (circles, concentric circles, etc.). The base of the central pillar has foliage ornamentation. The whole is raised on a square plinth. It is not perhaps as accomplished as the Bodmin and Roche fonts, also in Cornwall, but it is of the same type. Listed in Historic England [Listing NGR: SW9276245254]: "Norman font is round carved bowl over round central shaft with corner lugs carved with heads to form capitals of 4 shafts supported on moulded and carved bases". The font is said to have been originally from the church of St. James now abandoned [NB: Lysons (1814) writes of a church dedicated to St James "on the north side of the town flood, what is called Old Tregony", still standing ca. 1736; its advowson belonged to the Abbaye de Valle, in Normandy, which would suggest at least a 11th-12th century date; St James' was given by that abbey "to the Prior and convent of Merton, in Surrey" in 1267].