Canterbury No. 3

Gailhabaud (1850) writes that ther was a baptismal font made of silver in this cathedral [he does not give a source]. Ditto in The Church Builder (issue no. 47 January 1873: 20). Both Harvey & Cox and Bond refer to a silver font (lost?) which existed in the Canterbury cathedral church. Harvey & Cox (1907) tell of it being adorned with beasts and birds and weighing 200 ounces. Bond (1908) writes that this is the font that was sent for when royal children were to be baptized: "Then must the fonte of Siluer that is at Canterbury be sent for". A letter dated 6 June 1630, sent from Lambeth by the Archbishop Abbot to the Dean of Canterbury, requests that a search for the royal font be made in Canterbury, as a new prince had been born at St. James' Palace only a fortnight earlier, and the traditional font, "a font of sylver wherein the King's children of ancient times have been christened", was needed urgently for the royal baptism. The Archbishop instructs the Dean at Canterbury "that you should with all speed search out if there be any such thing in your custody [...], And if you have no such thing you are to certify me speedily what you find in any records or register hath been done therewithal, or how your predecessors parted with it". Unfortunately we have not found the Dean's reply, but this Index has an entry for a royal baptismal font in the London Tower dating from ca. 1660, which probably means that the earlier silver font was unheard of since the 1550 inventory [cf. infra]. Described in Davies (1962) [after Oman (1957)]; as a font used: "At the baptism of Prince Arthur in Winchester Cathedral in 1486; this large silver bowl, kept at Canterbury, was also used for Princess Margaret in Westminster Abbey in 1489, and later for the christening of Edward VI at Hampton Court. It is last heard of in an inventory of 1550". The Tower of London has one such font [cf. Index entry for London No. 1], also in silver, which has been used for royal baptisms since the 1630s (?). A similar custom exists also in Denmark, where a royal font is sent to where the royal infant is to be baptized. Spain's monarchs use the font at Caleruega for the baptism of the newborn princes and princesses. An article by Todd Longstaffe-Gowan and Tim Knox, in Apollo (July 2006) [in http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0PAL/is_533_163/ai_n26932472/pg_6 [accessed 19 November 2008]] narrates the finding at the Portobello Rd. market, London, in 2002, of the early-17th century architectural drawing for the replacement font by sculptor John Christmas, commissioned by John Warner, Dean of Lichfield, in 1637 [NB: the drawing was on show at the Victoria and Albert Museum in July 2006]. The source (ibid.) documents the earlier presence of the of a "Bazon of brasse for Christenynge with a foote of Iron to stand vpon" and the still earlier silver font [text footnoted to "J. Wickham Legg and W.H. St John Hope, Inventories of Christchurh Canterbury with Historical and Topographical Introductions and Illustrative Documents, Westminster, 1902, p. 242 (a transcription of an inventory dated 1 December 1586). Prior to the arrival of the brass font there was a 'fonte of Siluer [silver]', p. 237."]