Cherisay / Chérisay [Chérisy? / Cherisy? / Chérisé? / Cherise?

Included by Enlart in a list of French Renaissance double-fonts (Enlart, 1902). Bond (1908: 61) quotes J. Maillet (Revue de l'art chrétien, 1890) speaking of a double font at Chérisé, near Le Mans, of which, the lower font: "is that above which was placed the head of the child, as is done still, when the baptismal water is poured on it. This font is of the seventeenth or eighteenth century and is not divided into two parts by a partition." [NB: the "Chérisé" (near Le Mans) of Bond and the town of "Chérisy" (near Dreux, a reasonable distance of Le Mans) may be the same]. The font at Chérisay, not far from Le Mans, is described and illustrated in Le patrimoines des communes de la Sarthe (2001, v. 2: 1443-1444) as a 16th century double-font consisting of a main body, that of an octagonal basin with a narrower pedestal base; also part of the font is a shorter appendix, square in plan which is said to have the function of collecting the used water dripped from the baptizand. This same source (ibid.) informs that the tin implement with which the priest poured the water is still present. The font appears painted in a very dark colour.