Camarenilla / Camarena Alta

This font stood in the Mozarabic church of San Marcos, Toledo, until 1794; the church was in ruins; the Cardinal-Bishop of Toledo Cathedral, Lorenzana, gave permission to move it to Camarenilla, where it was placed in a little chapel especially built for it; thirty years later it stood unused behind the free standing altar in the chancel. According to Frothingham (1977), this basin is almost identical to the one located in The Hispanic Society of America Collection in New York (see Hispanic-Moresque No. E503). Studied in Pavón Maldonado (1983). Noted in McQuade (1999), after Frothingham. It is an octagonal basin made of glazed ceramic and decorated with patterns made of fretwork; these form the background, as well as the frames for the symbols on the sides: several variations of the IHS monogram inside a shield, and of mounted fleurdelysée crosses; to the sides of these appear several smaller motifs that have been identified as being of Moorish influence/source: Fatimah's hand, the eye and the thistle flower; like most of these ceramic basins, the underbowl is of roughly conical shape, with a central drain at the bottom tip. It is now mounted on modern metal support.