Angers No. 1

An exceptional holy-water stoup described by Enlart (1902) as an antique green marble bath-tub of oval shape supported by two couchant lions This ancient bath-tub had, according to Lasteyrie (1929), been used as the cathedral baptismal font but had, already in his time, been converted into a holy-water stoup. The object, as shown in Lasteyrie's illustration, consists of two large volumes of green marble, the upper one, the bath tub, being supported on two small couchant lions; the whole is set in an iron frame. Supposedly it was originally a Roman bath tub carried to Angers from the Provence by René d'Anjou (1409-1480), duke of Anjou, cound of Provence, king of Sicily and Jerusalem; it had served since the time it was installed in the cathedral of Angers, in the duke's time, until 1699 as baptismal font and, thereafter, as holy-water stoup. The object is listed in Palissy [ref.: PM49000023] with photograph in Mémoire [ref.: APMH00010500]: "Baignoire [...] en marbre vert antique et supportée par deux lions en marbre blanc. Elle repose sur un socle en marbre noir. Il s'agit d'anciens fonts baptismaux ou bénitier (inv n°1) [...] H = 92 ; la = 155 [...] 3e siècle [...] donnée en 1450 par René d'Anjou qui l'avait apportée de Provence." The present baptismal font in the cathedral is moder, perhaps after 1699? [NB: we have no information on the font of the medieval cathedral].