Bristol No. 1
Image copyright © [in the public domain]
PD
Results: 3 records
BBL01: design element - motifs - scallop
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © [in the public domain]
Image Source: engraving in Paley (1844: unpaged)
Copyright Instructions: PD
view of font
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © [in the public domain]
Image Source: engraving in Paley (1844: unpaged)
Copyright Instructions: PD
view of font cover
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © [in the public domain]
Image Source: digital image of an illustration in Bond (1908)
Copyright Instructions: PD
INFORMATION
Font ID: 03427BRI
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Font Century and Period/Style: 12th century [re-tooled], Norman [altered?]
Cognate Fonts: other English fonts with square-shaped inner basin wells at Thornbury and Westerleigh; sldo other fonts decorated with scallop motif [cf. FontNotes]
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of St. Philip and St. Jacob
Font Location in Church: Inside the church, in the W side, SW corner
Church Patron Saint(s): St. Philip & St. Jacob
Church Address: Central Church, Tower Hill, Bristol BS2 0ET, United Kingdom -- Tel.: +44 117 929 3386
Site Location: Bristol, South West, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Located on Narrow Plain, Bristol
Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Bristol
Additional Comments: recycled font: "much restored" / re-tooled
Font Notes:
Click to view
The font at St. Philip's has a plain basin shaped like a scalloped capital, mounted on a broad cylindrical base adorned with a single torus. The lower base or plinth is square. Paley reported it painted (1844) but the paint had been scraped off by Bond's time (1908). Paley (1844) offers it as a "good model for imitation when a Norman Font is required at a moderate cost, as the form is good and the work easily executed". Both Paley (ibid.) and Bond (1908) report a Jacobean font cover and Bond's illustration shows a square box-frame latticed with four window arches on each side, one of each is hinged to open and allow access to the font's well. It has a typical Jacobean top of eight "S" vertical motifs, and a tall cup and (?) finial. Paley (ibid.) describes the lid simply as "a cumbrous cover". The Handbook for travellers… (1869) states: "The font is plain Norm[an], lined with lead." Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a noteworthy baptismal font of the Norman period. Noted in Tyrrell-Green (1928) on a list of mostly Welsh fonts consisting of a square basin decorated with scallop motif (includes one from Bristol St Philip's and another from Thornbury, Gloucs., both bordering with Wales). Described in Pevsner (1958) as Norman, but re-tooled. Noted in Foyle (2004): "Much-restored Norman font, square with scalloped underside. Oak font cover, 1636 (the later inscription plate is inaccurate): a box-like cage of open arches, then eight big S-scrolls carrying a finial."
COORDINATES
UTM: 30U 528836 5700503
Latitude & Longitude (Decimal): 51.454969, -2.584987
Latitude & Longitude (DMS): 51° 27′ 17.89″ N, 2° 35′ 5.95″ W
MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS
Material: stone, unknown
Font Shape: square, mounted
Basin Interior Shape: square
Basin Exterior Shape: square
Basin Depth: 27.5 cm
Font Height (less Plinth): 90 cm
Trapezoidal Basin: 50 x 50 cm?*
Notes on Measurements: Paley (1844: unpaged). *[NB: the basin measurement given by Paley is "1 ft. 8 in. across the top"]
LID INFORMATION
Date: 1636 / Jacobean
Material: wood, oak
Notes: "rim-buffet" type -- [cf. FontNotes]
REFERENCES
- Bond, Francis, Fonts and Font Covers, London: Waterstone, 1985 c1908, p. 151, 289, ill. on p. 311
- Cox, John Charles, English Church Furniture, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1907, p. 199, 200
- Foyle, Andrew, Bristol, New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2004, p. 107
- Murray, John, A handbook for travellers in Wiltshire, Dorsetshire, and Somersetshire, London: John Murray, 1869, p. 326 / [http://books.google.ca/books?id=hYEOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA369&lpg=PA369&dq=hemyock+church+font&source=bl&ots=wV68KRXFhH&sig=_-CnLgSLeYKjq8YBQMsxSQrjbvA&hl=en&ei=1IKRSeTLOojKNO3c_YkM&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=6&ct=result#PPA161,M1] [accessed 10 February 2009]
- Paley, Frederick Apthorp, Illustrations of Baptismal Fonts, London, UK: John van Voorst, 1844, p. 11, 30fn et al.
- Pevsner, Nikolaus, North Somerset and Bristol, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1958, p. 408
- Thurlby, Malcolm, Romanesque architecture and sculpture in Wales, Little Logaston, Woonton, Almeley, Herts.: Logaston Press, 2006, p. 188
- Tyrrell-Green, E., Baptismal Fonts Classified and Illustrated, London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge: The Macmillan Co., 1928, p. 86