Canterbury No. 6
Image copyright © [in the public domain]
PD
Results: 1 records
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Copyright Statement: Image copyright © [in the public domain]
Image Source: Rickman & Parker (1881: 152)
Copyright Instructions: PD
INFORMATION
Font ID: 04807CAN
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Font Date: ca. 1250?
Font Century and Period/Style: 13th century (mid), Early English
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of St. George the Martyr [destroyed]
Font Location in Church: disappeared? / destroyed?
Church Patron Saint(s): St. George
Church Notes: the church was destroyed in World War II; only the tower survived
Site Location: Kent, South East, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: At the point where High St. changes name to St. George St.
Additional Comments: famous persons baptised: Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) is said to have been baptised in this font; disappeared font / damaged font / destroyed font
Font Notes:
Click to view
A font of the Early English period, ca. 1250, was illustrated in Rickman & Parker (1881) [with a woodcut by Orlando Jewitt]: a shallow octagonal basin of plain vertical sides was raised on a central column and [seven? / eight?] surrounding colonnettes, all round. Described in Cox (1905): "The most noteworthy feature of this church is the font at the east end of the nave, which is of unique arrangement. The bowl, which is a shallow octagon, rests on seven slender shafts, the flat capitals of which project some little way beyond the bowl that they support. It is of thirteenth-century date, and has a plain domed cover of the seventeenth century." Cox & Harvey (1907) describe this font as "unique; eight tall detached shafts, with well-moulded capitals and bases, in addition to a larger central shaft, hold up a perfectly plain shallow octagon bowl; the smaller shafts stand out beyond the bowl, which is only supported by half of the capitals". Described in Tyrrell-Green (1928) as a baptismal font of the Early English period. [NB: the whole church was destroyed during the Second World War bombings and only the tower was restored. [cf. the Kent Messenger Group Newspapers WEB page for more info.] According to this source Christopher Marlowe was baptised here.
MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS
Material: stone
Font Shape: octagonal, mounted
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: octagonal
LID INFORMATION
Date: 17th-century
Material: wood
Apparatus: no
Notes: plian domed cover; destroyed [cf. FontNotes]
REFERENCES
- Cox, John Charles, Canterbury, a historical and topographical account of the city, London: Methuen, 1905, p. 252-253
- Cox, John Charles, English Church Furniture, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1907, p. 204
- Rickman, Thomas, An Attempt to Discriminate the Styles of Architecture in England, from the Conquest to the Reformation, with a Sketch of the Grecian and Roman Orders, An [7th ed. -- orig. published in 1817], Oxford and London: Parker and Co., 1881, ill. on p. 152
- Tyrrell-Green, E., Baptismal Fonts Classified and Illustrated, London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge: The Macmillan Co., 1928, p. 90