Shiplake

Illustrated by Orlando Jewitt in Rickman & Parker (1881) as a Decorated baptismal font dated ca. 1320. The Ecclesiastical and Architectural Topography of England: Oxfordshire (1850) notes: "The font [is] good D[ecorated]", and makes reference to the Rickman engraving [earlier edition than cited above]. The same illustration by Jewitt is used in The Church Builder (issue no. 47 July 1873: 88-89): "The example from Shiplake, Oxfordshire, is very well proportioned, and has a certain degree of originality in the treatment of the panels with pendants at the angles." The basin is octagonal, with an arcade of shaftless trefoil arches forming trefoil windows at the spandrels and resting on "cul-de-lampe". The inner well of the basin is round. The octagonal pedestal of the base is plain except for a few round mouldings. There is no mention of a font in Sherwood & Pevsner (1974), but the English Heritage entry for this church [listing NGR: SU7674678248] cited in the British Listed Buildings database [www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-247174-church-of-st-peter-and-st-paul-shiplake] [accessed 21 May 2012] notes only a modern font here: "Font by G.E. Street; rectangular basin supported on columns with foliated caps and stepped base", a font which would have been introduced by Scott in his 1869 renovation o0f this church. [NB: we have no information on the whereabouts of the earlier font noted above].