Lugny-Champagne

Cast-iron holy-water stoup of 1494 listed in Palissy [ref.: PM18000242]: "Bénitier [...] Fonte de fer [...] 1494 [...] Photographies liées au dossier de protection: GENDARMERIE DE SANCERGUES" but no images included in the listing. Described in Lasteyrie (1926-1927) as a cast iron holy-water stoup of the type common in the Berry and Nivernais. The entry for this church in La Sauvegarde de l’Art Français [https://www.sauvegardeartfrancais.fr/projets/lugny-champagne-eglise-saint-fiacre/] [accessed 8 October 2023] that in an otherwise unremarkable building there is the base of a 16th-century holy-water stoup, and a vary rare cast iron stoup dated by an inscription to 1494, attributed to the master of the forge in nearby Motte-Cochon ["La modeste église Saint-Fiacre de Lugny-Champagne n’offre aucune particularité remarquable dans son architecture [...] un pied de bénitier de pierre du XVIème s. et surtout un très rare bénitier de fonte, portant une inscription moulée qui le date de 1494 et l’attribue au maître de forge du moulin voisin de la Motte-Cochon, précieux témoignage d’une précoce activité métallurgique dans la région."] The metal stoup is also reported in the entry for this church in the Fondation du Patrimoine [https://www.fondation-patrimoine.org/les-projets/eglise-saint-fiacre-de-lugny-champagne] [accessed 8 October 2023]. Olivier Trotignon's Medieval Overblog entry of 30 June 2010 [http://berry-medieval.over-blog.com/article-le-benitier-de-fonte-de-lugny-champagne-xve-siecle-53187230.html] [accessed 9 October 2023] describes and illustrates this stoup, and mentions a similar one on "Chapelle Hugon" near Sancoins, and other such stoup of a later date at "Saint-Baudel, entre Mareuil et Châteauneuf-sur-Cher"; Trotignon's entry notes also the the word "faict" appears next to the date in the inscription. Noted and illustrated in Communes [https://www.communes.com/images/orig/centre/cher/lugny-champagne_18140/lugny-champagne_262714.jpg] [accessed 9 October 2023]. The baptismal font in this church, also illustrated in the Communes site above, appears modern [cf. ImagesArea] and was probably installed in the 19th-century re-building of the church. Lasteyrie cites Dervieu's article "Les grands bénitiers en fonte du Berry" in the Mém. des Antiq. du Centre [sic], t. XXXVI, 1913, p. 69 et s., as source; and for this particular stoup, ibid., p. 70 and Buhot de Kersers' Statistique monumentale du Cher, VI, p. 308 for the inscription.