Galdar nr. Las Palmas / Gáldars / Arucas

Described in Borras Gualis (1995) as the oldest Mudejar font on the island of Gran Canaria: the basin is made of glazed earthenware and the base is made of stone. Hernández Pérez' article "Las pilas bautismales de la Peña de Francia" (El Día Digital (Aug. 11, 2001): 1-3, describes it as one of the first fonts imported into the Canary Islands from the ceramic workshops of Seville, Spain; it was used to baptise the local Guanartemes and their families. The fonts, mostly basins, but some with bases (?), were as green fonts ["pilas verdes"] for they had a green glaze on them. Hernández Perera (1952), after Gestoso y Pérez (1903), notes a group of similar fonts of Sevillian manufacture and sent to the Canary Islands which includes Breña Alta, Los Sauces, Gáldar (Arucas), La Laguna and Valsequillo [antes en Telde]. Hernández Perera (1952) offers a correction to the entry in Rodríguez Moure (1915) which located this font in the town of Arucas [on the northeastern side of the island]: "la pila existente en Gran Canaria está en la iglesia parroquial de Santiago, en la villa de Gáldar, y no en la ciudad de Arucas". According to Hernández Perera (1952) this font would be contemporary with those at Valsequillo [formerly at Telde] and at La Laguna, the latter dated by Gestoso Pérez (1903) to ca. 1479. The hemispheric ceramic basin is decorated with a band of horned (bovine?) heads alternating with one other motif (floral?) on the rim moulding; below it is a band of human heads alternating with grape-bunch motif; another band of bovine heads, grape-bunch and floral (?) motifs follows down the side, the rest of the underside below is plain; the pedestal base, made of stone, has an octagonal moulded top with tapering along the stem and ending below into a square lower base. A metal ring or brace has been added at some point as reinforcement of the upper basin side. There is no trace of font-cover hardware, and the inner basin well is not lined.