Galway No. 2

Described and illustrated in Pike (1989) as a vessel "dated earlier than the font, about 1320 by Church records. Thought to be a stoup with no central drain in the circular bowl. There are two sections to the pedestal. The decoration is in high relief on bowl and pedestal. Decoration on the stoup could be birds". Although the surfaces are much damaged, there appear to be several identifiable patterns of motifs on this object: a single-strand braid seems to run around most of the side of the basin, with other motifs below it; the upper stem of the base appears round and has two rows of saw-tooth one over the other making rhomboid motifs on one area, and floral (?) of avian (?) on the opposite side; the lower section of the stem appears octagonal and is badly damaged around the lower end; the whole is raised of a circular pedestal. The inner basin well is round and very shallow. [We are grateful to Dr. Rachel Moss, and to Trinity College, Dublin, for the copy of Ms. Pike's work, and to Ms. Joan Pike for her kind permission to reproduce her original drawings -- We are also grateful to Lis Audigier for the recent [2006] images of this object]