Franchesse No. 1

Reported in an oral presentation by Georges de Soultrait to the 21st session of the 1854 Congrès archéologique de France, as one of five Romanesque fonts in the Allier; a heavy and crude font consisting of a main round basin with colonnettes at 90-degree angles, to which is attached a secondary basin, also round, flanked by two colonnettes. Soultrait (ibid.) suggests a date in the 13th century, at the latest, but double fonts have not been documented prior to the 15th century [="Le font de Franchesse, laid, lourd et sans caractères bien marqués, est pédiculé composé; il est formé d'une cuve ronde, cantonnée de quatre colonnettes, à laquelle est jointe une piscine également arrondie, flanquée de deux colonnettes; je crois ce font du XIIIe. siècle au plus tard"] [NB: Soultrait (ibid.) includes Franchesse's font again in a listing of fonts of the late-15th or early-16th centuries]. Included by Enlart (1902) in a list of French double-fonts. The Dictionnaire des églises... (1966-) lists it with a 13th-14th century date. Described and illustrated in Le patrimoine des communes de l'Allier (1999). Listed in Palissy [ref.: PM03000109]: "Le bénitier a une cuve avec à ses angles quatre contreforts et sur ses faces des blasons dont on ne peut plus voir les armoiries qui étaient sans doute peintes. Les fonts baptismaux sont formés d'une grande cuve ronde avec quatre colonnettes, à laquelle est jointe une piscine également arrondie, flanquée de deux colonnettes. [...] 15e siècle". A double-font of uneven volumes, as are many of the double-fonts of this area; the main font is considerably larger and has a round basin with four corner colonnettes which reach only down to the basin sides; the base is a wider square block. The second or adjoining font is also round and of the same height but much smaller. Both volumes appear to be made of a single block of stone and share a rectangular plinth.