Blythburgh No. 1 / Bladebure / Blythborough / Bliburgh

GET MORE FONT PICS ESPECIALLY THE LARGE ONE HERE https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Holy_Trinity_Church,_Blythburgh,_font There is an entry for Blythburg [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/TM4575/blythburgh/] [accessed 12 April 2023]; it reports "3 churches. 2.0 church lands" in it. The Mirror of Literature, Amusement and Instruction (no. 969, vol. xxxiv, 21 September 1839: 186) notes that this font "still shows some traces of colouring and gilding". Noted in Paley (1844) as a baptismal font that has retained vestiges of old paint. Suckling (1846-1848) writes: "The octagonal cost was raised at the cost of John Masin and Katherine his wife, who probably also vaulted the porch with stone, as its boss, or central ornament, bore the figure of Masin surrounded by a label thus inscribed. 'Orate pro aiabs Johis Masin et Katerine uxoris eius'" [abbreviation signs not reproduced here]. Noted in Parker (1885), after Rickman, as a fine octagonal and "of good composition". In Cautley (1949). Described and fully studied in Nichols (1994), who describes "relief sculpture obliterated, though shadows remain for penance and extreme unction"; Nichols cites Janet Becker as being able to discern the Eucharist panel "when the light is good" [quoted by Nichols after Becker's Blythburgh, 1935]. Nichols also relates the controversy regarding the inscription which supposedly named the donors of the font, Johne Masin and Katerine, his wife. She cites Becker's reading of the inscription [cf. Inscription] and mentions that both Cautley and Pevsner accepted the date as correct. Cox (1907) describes it as a font raised on three high octagonal stone steps with half-erased inscription probably stating that John and his wife Katherine donated the font. Hutton (1957) writes that the font was "damaged by both lightning and the Puritans." Tyrrell-Green (1928) states that "writers are mistaken [...] in including the font at Blythburg in the list of fonts depicting the Seven Sacraments" [cf. Nichols, supra]. Simon Knott [www.sufflokchurches.co.uk/Blythburgh.htm] notes: "this was one of the rare, beautiful seven sacrament fonts, similar in style to the one at Westhall; but, like those at neighbouring Wenhaston and Southwold, it has been completely stripped of imagery. Almost certainly, this was done in 1540, but there is a story that the font at Wenhaston was chiselled clean as part of the 19th century restoration."