Ipswich No. 6

Damage to the font and the survival of part of the inscription on it are addressed in the 1885 edition of Dowsing's Journal: "The unique octagonal Font has been most roughly used. Dowsing does not allude to it, which makes it probable that a greater part of the mischievous work that characterized this period, had been previously enacted. The godly man, as Dowsing terms the individual, who at the time was Churchwarden, most likely had something to do with the horrible mutilation which this Font has undergone, and its former position, placed with one of its faces against the wall, near the South entrance, probably saved a part of the interesting inscription -Sal et Saliva- appearing on the scrolls borne by angels." Parker (1855) notes a "rather rich" Perpendicular font in this church. Knott ([2005?]) writes: "a fine font, that Dowsing inspected, detected and rejected. However he missed the angel on the west panel, which holds a scroll with the words sal et saliva on it ('salt and saliva'). This refers to two of the elements of sacramental Baptism. Dowsing probably missed it because the font was up against a pillar in the 17th century." [NB: Knott refers to the notorious follower of Cromwell; Dowsing led a group that carried out much of the iconoclasm and destruction of religious monuments in East Anglia, and kept a detailed record of his activities in a diary that has survived to this day]. A brief letter from "C.R. Manning, Diss Rectory, Norfolk", to the 'Notes and Queries' of May 31, 1884, on the nature of the inscription, generated a number of replies to the same journal. Manning had asked in his letter: "Is this part of any known formula of exorcism, or of any verse or sentence applicable to baptism?". The letters that followed in the N&Q issues for June, August, September and November explained the function of the two, salt and saliva, with references to the ritual of baptism, as well as to sources such as Juvenal and Pliny. The font is octagonal and of two volumes: the basin has vertical sides which appear to have held angels holding a variety of symbols, including the one survivor on the west end who holds a banner with the said inscription;some of the sides were re-carved at a later date; there are cherubs on the underbowl chamfer; the lower volume, the base, is also octagonal with deeply set sides separated by buttresses; these resulting niches may have held figures.