Isques / Iseca / Isecca / Isica

One of several table-top type square fonts mounted on a column base listed by Enlart (1895) and (1902). Listed and illustrated in Palissy [ref.: PM62000916] as a sandstone font of the late-12th century, "4e quart 12e siècle", in the church of Sainte-Apollonie, on rue de l'Eglise, Isques. An earlier (?) entry in Palissy [ref.: IM62000819], Inventaire général du Patrimoine culturel du Nord-Pas-de-Calais, lists and illustrates a font in the "Eglise paroissiale Saint-Wulmer", on rue de l'Eglise, Isques; the location of the font is given as the southwest corner of the nave; measurements given are: Total height 84 cm - Height of stem 23 cm - Side of the square basin 80 cm - Diameter 62 cm - "Ouverture de la cuve side 49 cm; this entry dates the font to the 2nd half of the 12th century and gives the materials as "calcaire oolithique dit pierre de Marquise"; a reference is given to Enlart's 'Monuments religieux... (1895), p. 40 and fig. on p. 265. A note is added about the state of conservation ["mediocre"] and the fact that the southwest corner of the font is broken off and it has been restored: "emploi du mortier pour dissimuler le manque". A photograph taken by Enlart [ca. 1902?] shows the font not covered in whitewash -as it was in 1981- and it has a metal latch attached to one of its sides; the photograph does not show a cover but there appears to have been one on the font at the time, and there is at least one metal anchor attached to the upper rim still. [NB: it is not clear why Palissy and Mérimée [cf. supra] appear to treat the one parish church as two, and have differemt entries, one for Saint-Wulmer's, one for Sainte-Apollonie's].