London No. 12

The V&A museum has one baptismal font in its colection: "It is inlaid with marble and other stones and is Italian, 13th century. The font was given to the Museum by the Castle Museum, Norwich in 1958. Unfortunately it has not been published" [e-mail communication from the Sculpture Dept., Victoria and Albert Museum, May 28, 2002 -- We are grateful to Ms. Diane Bilbey, Secretary, for the information]. According to the same communication, the Museum has a fragment of another font [cf. Index entry for London No. 16], as well as nine plaster casts [cf. notes below] of baptismal fonts displayed in the Cast Courts. Bond (1908: 107, 272, 298) refers to the presence of several reproductions ("models") of baptismal fonts and related objects in this museum; among them, a copy of the famous font at Bridekirk, plus several other copies of originals kept at the Statens Historiska Museum of Stockholm. Bond mentions also " a christening bowl, 13 inches across, of Nottingham brown stoneware bearing the date 20th November 1720", as well as a cast of the Hal crane [an ingenious apparatus made in 1446 by Guillaume Lefèvre, a founder/smelter from Tournai, still in working order - cf. Index entry for Hal/ Halle, Belgium for more information]