St. Ives nr. Penzance / Saint Ives

Results: 7 records

Click to view images

B01: angel - demi-figure - holding shield - blank - 4

Scene Description: At 90-degree angles in the basin

Image Source: digital photograph taken 7 July 2007 by Holy Hayes in http://www.sacred-destinations.com/england/st-ives-church.htm [accessed 19 September 2007]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

B02: design element - motifs - band or scroll

Scene Description: all around the basin

Image Source: digital photograph taken 7 July 2007 by Holy Hayes in http://www.sacred-destinations.com/england/st-ives-church.htm [accessed 19 September 2007]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

LB01: animal - mammal - lion? - dragon? - devil? - 4?

Scene Description: devils, lions or dragons around the lower base

Image Source: digital photograph taken 7 July 2007 by Holy Hayes in http://www.sacred-destinations.com/england/st-ives-church.htm [accessed 19 September 2007]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of font

Scene Description: Sketch by Blight in the original 1863 article in The Gentleman's Magazine

Image Source: Sketch by Blight in the original 1863 article in The Gentleman's Magazine

Copyright Instructions: PD

view of basin

Image Source: digital photograph taken 7 July 2007 by Holy Hayes in http://www.sacred-destinations.com/england/st-ives-church.htm [accessed 19 September 2007]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

view of church exterior - southeast view

Image Source: Julie Pitrone Williamson [jpwili@twmi.rr.com]

Copyright Instructions: Image and permission received (leter of 9 December 2004)

view of base

Image Source: digital photograph taken 7 July 2007 by Holy Hayes in http://www.sacred-destinations.com/england/st-ives-church.htm [accessed 19 September 2007]

Copyright Instructions: Standing permission

INFORMATION

Font ID: 01224IVE

Object Type: Baptismal Font1

Font Century and Period/Style: 13th - 15th century [modern copy?], Medieval

Workshop/Group/Artisan: heraldic font

Cognate Fonts: Similar to the font at nearby St. Buryan, and at Sancreed, but not identical; also the fonts at Camborne No. 2, St. Anthony-in-Meneage and St. Winnow, all in Cornwall, have the same inscription

Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of St. Mary the Virgin

Font Location in Church: Inside the church

Church Patron Saint(s): St. Ia [aka Hya, Ia, Ives]

Church Address: 15 St Andrew's St, Saint Ives TR26 1AH, United Kingdom

Site Location: Cornwall, South West, England, United Kingdom

Directions to Site: Located on the northern point of the westernmost area of Cornwall, 12-15 km N of Penzance

Additional Comments: recycled font? : it may be a copy in granite of the original font, a/p Blight's suggestion

Font Notes: Click to view

Noted in Lysons (1806-1833) as one of three Cornish fonts [St. Winnow and Camborne are the others] that “are nearly alike, and apparently of the fourteenth century, being round, with four angels supporting shields, and inscriptions in text hand: those of Camborne and St. Ives have four lions at the base[...]. The inscription on the St. Ives font is imperfect; but appears to have been of the same kind, though not in the same words as the other two [...].” Noted in 'On the ancient stone fonts of Cornwall' (1851) as an early example of font form the Middle Pointed, i.e., Decorated, period bearing a partly obliterated inscription. Described and illustrated in one of Blight's articles on Cornish churches for the Gentleman's Magazine (1863) and later reprinted in his Churches of West Cornwall (1885). Blight (ibid.) warns that the font is "apparently of the thirteenth century, but, as it is of granite, may be a copy of a similar one of that date"; Blight also gives the text of the inscription and identifies the animals of the lower base as "four dragons"]. Noted in Murray (1865) simply as "a curious font". Described in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a baptismal font of the 13th century, in the Decorated style; they report a Latin inscription on it [cf. Inscription area]. Cox (1912) writes: "Fine but much restored early 14th cent, granite font has 4 shield-bearing angels round bowl, on one shield, in raised letters, Omnes baptizate gentes, 4 dragons at base." The same inscription is reported in Tyrrell-Green (1928) as appearing on the shield carried by an angel; this same source (ibid.) describes low-relief lions ornamenting the pedestal. Noted in Pevsner (1970): "Font. Circular base with attached corner bases of supports decorated by lions 'passant gardant' (cf. Crowan). The circular bowl has severely stylized angels in the corners, holding shields. The material, granite, imposed so much restraint on detail that the work looks as if it were of today. It is probably C15." Holly Hayes describes the figures on the base as devils [http://www.sacred-destinations.com/england/st-ives-church.htm [accessed 19 September 2007]. [We are grateful to Rick Parsons, Bristol, England, for providing Blight's text and images] [NB: this place not to be confused with "St. Ive", also in Cornwall, which has a Perpendicular period font]. Pevsner (1970) gives this font in reference to his doubts about the early date attributed to the font at Crowan.

Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Rick Parsons, Bristol, England, for providing Blight's text and images, to Julie Pitrone Williamson [jpwili@twmi.rr.com] for the photograph of this church, and to Holly Hayes, of www.sacreddestinations.com for het photographs of this font.

COORDINATES

UTM: 30U 323028 5565244

Latitude & Longitude (Decimal): 50.212876, -5.480468

Latitude & Longitude (DMS): 50° 12′ 46.36″ N, 5° 28′ 49.69″ W

MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS

Material: stone, granite

Font Shape: bucket-shaped, mounted

Basin Interior Shape: round

Basin Exterior Shape: round

Font Height (less Plinth): 115 cm*

Notes on Measurements: * [Blight (1863: 132) ["3 ft. 10 in. high"]]

INSCRIPTION

Inscription Language: Latin

Inscription Location: On a shield held by an angel on the basin

Inscription Text: "OMNES BAPTIZATE GENTES"

Inscription Notes: [cf. FontNotes]

Inscription Source: Blight (1863: 132); Cox & Harvey (1907: 181); Tyrrell-Green (1928: 164)

LID INFORMATION

Date: unknown

Material: wood?

Apparatus: no

Notes: a flat lid with a locking mechanism is apparent in Blight's drawing of this font

REFERENCES

"On the ancient stone fonts of Cornwall: a communication", 83 (April 1851) / New Series no. 47, Ecclesiologist, 1851, pp. 96-102; p. 100
Blight, John Thomas, "Cornish churches [pt. 10]", [215], August 1863, The Gentleman's Magazine: or, Trader's monthly intelligencer, 1863, pp. 130-142; p. 132
Blight, John Thomas, Churches of West Cornwall: with notes and antiquities of the district, London: J.H. Parker & J. Parker, 1865, [?] [http://west-penwith.org.uk/ives7.htm]
Cox, John Charles, Cornwall, London: George Allen & Company, 1912, p. 125
Cox, John Charles, English Church Furniture, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1907, p. 182, 193
Lysons, Daniel, Magna Britannia, being a concise topographical account of the several counties of Great Britain, London: Printed for T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1806-1822, vol. III: p. ccxxiv
Murray, John, A handbook for travellers in Devon and Cornwall, London: John Murray, 1865, p. 322 / [http://books.google.ca/books?id=V_YGAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA58&lpg=PA58&dq=%22roborough+stone%22&source=bl&ots=2ZhOkO8ZIn&sig=RriwKcw-zwLPfFdGUaHE7WccPgU&hl=en&ei=QRWkSZHXMYjTnQe2ud2pBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=7&ct=result#PPR5,M1] [accessed 24 February 2009]
Pevsner, Nikolaus, Cornwall, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1970, p. 60, 180, 207
Tyrrell-Green, E., Baptismal Fonts Classified and Illustrated, London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge: The Macmillan Co., 1928, p. 64, 164