Bessay-sur-Allier

Reported in an oral presentation by Georges de Soultrait to the 21st session of the 1854 Congrès archéologique de France, as one of five Romanesque fonts in the Allier, a former font being then used as holy-water stoup, decorated with crude figures, foliage and masques [="Le font ancien de Bessay, qui sert maintenant de bénitier, a une cuve à pans, ornée de grossières sculptures, de feuilles grasses et de masques"]. Listed and illustrated in the Palissy database [réf.: PM03000025] as a holy-water stoup of the 12th century. Listed in Le Patrimoine des communes de l'Allier (1999) as a holy-water stoup of the 12th or 13th century, probably from the church at Neuglise, which was destroyed in 1850. The basin is polygonal, some sides narrower than others, as if it were a square basin with trimmed corners. The sides are ornamented with a standing figure, a pointed window or arch, and other motifs not discernible in the source. The base is a broad cylindrical column totally plain. On-site notes: it is difficult to tell now whether this is a monolithic object, basin and base, because there is a coating of mortar which covers the base and its union with the wall. If it is monolithic, however, it was probably trimmed of the ornamentation which may have covered the original base, for the ornamentation of the basin has unfinished edges which appear to continue down at some spots. Be it as it may, the visible work on the basin is rather crude: from L->R: two arches; a human figure between two columns; another arch; a human face. The source in the church dates the transfer of this font from Neuglise to 1802. The baptismal font in this church [not listed in the Index] is a 19th-century white marble double-font.