Grenade-sur-Garonne

Esquié (1880) describes the font in detail and accounts for its disappearance between the time of his visit, "vers le milieu de l'année 1850" [=about mid-1850] and the publication of his article in 1880; his illustrations show that there are no "fantastic animals" on it but, rather three motifs that repeat all over the font: a rampant lion facing right, an angel with open arms facing front and a dove facing left, each inside a button-like circle. Esquié (ibid.) states that the shape and ornamentation on this font suggest a late 12th- or early 13th-century date, and Esquié states his preference for the latter. Enlart (1902) lists it among a group of 13th-century lead fonts and writes "vendus" i.e., sold (?) as the only comment. A few years earlier, in 1899, M. le chanoine Pottier had published an article entitled "Les cuves baptismales en plomb au diocèse de Montauban" in the Bull. Soc. archéol., Tarn-et-Garonne, about this font and another one of the same type in Verdun-sur-Garonne [quoted in Lasteyrie (1926-1927, v. 2, p. 513 and footnote 3)]. The font is described by Lasteyrie as being narrower than most others of the type and having their sides ornamented with rosettes, fleur de lis, roundels, groups of more or less fantastic animals, all of it distributed over three registers separated by mouldings. On-site notes: we were able to confirm on site that this oval font had indeed been sold ca. 1860 as lead and that it was much as Lasteyrie had described [cf. supra]. A very unremarkable orange/pink marble object of the 19th-20th century serves now [June 2001] as baptismal font.