Exeter No. 3 / Execestre / Exonia
Image copyright © wolfpaw, 2010
No known copyright restriction / Fair Dealing
Results: 15 records
view of font
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © wolfpaw, 2010
Image Source: digital photograph in wolfpaw [http://demolition-exeter.blogspot.ca/2010/12/st-mary-steps-church-west-street.html] [accessed 13 May 2018]
Copyright Instructions: No known copyright restriction / Fair Dealing
view of font
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © [in the public domain]
Image Source: digital image of a drawing by O. Ralling in The Western Antiquary (January 1883)
Copyright Instructions: PD
view of font
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © [in the public domain]
Image Source: digital image of a drawing in Lysons (1806-1833)
Copyright Instructions: PD
view of font and cover
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Roger Peters, 2005
Image Source: digital image of an illustration in Roger Peters [www.wissensdrang.com]
Copyright Instructions: Permission received (email of 9 January 2005)
view of font
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Roger Peters, 2005
Image Source: digital image of an illustration in Roger Peters [www.wissensdrang.com]
Copyright Instructions: Permission received (email of 9 January 2005)
design element - patterns - X-motif - inside a square - with dots
Scene Description: a narrow band all around just below the upper rim
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © wolfpaw, 2010
Image Source: digital photograph in wolfpaw [http://demolition-exeter.blogspot.ca/2010/12/st-mary-steps-church-west-street.html] [accessed 13 May 2018]
Copyright Instructions: No known copyright restriction / Fair Dealing
design element - motifs - palmette
Scene Description: large ones, under and over the waves of the ondulating moulding
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © wolfpaw, 2010
Image Source: digital photograph in wolfpaw [http://demolition-exeter.blogspot.ca/2010/12/st-mary-steps-church-west-street.html] [accessed 13 May 2018]
Copyright Instructions: No known copyright restriction / Fair Dealing
design element - architectural - arcade - blind - round arches
Scene Description: very narrow, all around the lower base, just above the central ring; arches or fluting
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © wolfpaw, 2010
Image Source: digital photograph in wolfpaw [http://demolition-exeter.blogspot.ca/2010/12/st-mary-steps-church-west-street.html] [accessed 13 May 2018]
Copyright Instructions: No known copyright restriction / Fair Dealing
view of church exterior in context
Scene Description: Source caption: "St. Mary Steps, Exeter. A glimpse towards West Street from the Western Way"
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Jonathan Billinger, 2010
Image Source: digital photograph taken 23 February 2010 by Jonathan Billinger [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1722932] [accessed 13 May 2018]
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0
view of church exterior - southeast view
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Robert Cutts, 2011
Image Source: digital photograph taken 13 March 2011 by Robert Cutts [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St_Mary_Steps_Church,_Exeter.jpg] [accessed 13 May 2018]
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-2.0
view of font and cover in context
Scene Description: Source caption: "Norman font, St Mary Steps church, Exeter"
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © David Smith, 2019
Image Source: digital photograph taken 14 September 2019 by David Smith [www.geograph.org.uk/photo/6268063] [accessed 26 April 2021]
Copyright Instructions: CC-BY-SA-3.0
view of font cover
Scene Description: the cover is padlicked to one of the iron staples in the upper rim
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © wolfpaw, 2010
Image Source: digital photograph in wolfpaw [http://demolition-exeter.blogspot.ca/2010/12/st-mary-steps-church-west-street.html] [accessed 13 May 2018]
Copyright Instructions: No known copyright restriction / Fair Dealing
design element - motifs - moulding - chevron
Scene Description: large and closely linked, resembling a rope moulding
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © wolfpaw, 2010
Image Source: digital photograph in wolfpaw [http://demolition-exeter.blogspot.ca/2010/12/st-mary-steps-church-west-street.html] [accessed 13 May 2018]
Copyright Instructions: No known copyright restriction / Fair Dealing
view of font cover
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © Roger Peters, 2005
Image Source: digital image of an illustration in Roger Peters [www.wissensdrang.com] [detail]
Copyright Instructions: Permission received (email of 9 January 2005)
view of font and cover
Copyright Statement: Image copyright © [in the public domain]
Image Source: digital image of B&W photograph in Bond (1908)
Copyright Instructions: PD
INFORMATION
Font ID: 05255EXE
Object Type: Baptismal Font1
Font Date: ca. 1199?
Font Century and Period/Style: 12th century (late?), Late Norman
Cognate Fonts: Similar in style to the font at Farringdon, also in Devon [cf. FontNotes]
Church / Chapel Name: Parish Church of St. Mary Steps
Font Location in Church: Inside the church
Church Patron Saint(s): St. Mary the Virgin
Church Notes: original church 1199
Church Address: West St, Exeter EX1 1BB, UK -- Tel.: +44 1392 677150
Site Location: Devon, South West, England, United Kingdom
Directions to Site: Located in West Street, Exeter, 60 km NE of Plymouth, about 100 km SW of Bristol
Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Exeter
Historical Region: Hundred of Wonford
Font Notes:
Click to view
There are eighteen entries for Exeter [variant spellings] in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/SX9292/exeter/] [accessed 13 May 2018], of which two mention a church in it. Lysons (1806-1833) describes a baptismal font "among many of circular form and an early age, enriched with various carved mouldings, wreaths, scrolls, or foliage". Described and illustrated in The Western Antiquarian (issue of January 1883: 176) as "a fine example of a Norman font". Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a baptismal font of the Norman period. Described and illustrated in Bond (1908): Norman baptismal font of the 11th or 12th century; the roughly cylindrical font has two clearly demarcated parts: a profusely ornamented basin and a plain base; the basin sides have three registers of ornamentation: the upper one, at the rim side, has framed "X" motifs with dots in the resulting triangles; the middle register is wider and has an ondulating moulding framing large palmette motifs in its waves; the lower register has a blind arcade of very narrow arches; at the very bottom, a protruding moulding ornamented with large chevron pattern, resembling very much the rope moulding so common on Norman fonts of the period. The cylindrical base is totaly plain. In Bond's illustration (ibid.) the font is raised on an obviously modern plinth and is covered with a prismatic lid not very dissimilar from that on the Lanreath font. The dark fold of the lead lining of the inner basin well is clearly visible. Both font and cover are noted in Stabb (1908): "The Norman font [...] is very fine, and noted for a rather unusual feature in font ornament, viz., zigzag. It is said to be one of the four finest specimens of the period in Devonshire. There is a good font cover with small opening in front." Described in Clarke (1913). Howard & Crossley (1919) describe the cover as being of Gothic design but probably post-Reformation. Listed in Tyrrell-Green (1928) as a font decorated with a rope moulding among other motifs. In Pevsner (1952): "Norman, cylindrical, with crude palmette scroll, projecting cable mooulding lower down, and some other minor motifs." [NB: Drake (2003) gives this font as an example of "fonts in which human and animal figures are enclosed in the undulations of a vine tendril", but the source images available to us show only palmettes in that position].
Credit and Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Dr. Roger Peters, of www.wissensdrang.com, for his permission to use the transcription of and images from Stabb (1908)]. We are also grateful to the Thomas Fisher Rare Books Library for access to the copy of Lysons’ Magna Britannia, and to Jim Ingram, of the Preservation Services, Robarts Library, for the digital imaging of Lysons’ illustrations.
COORDINATES
UTM: 30U 462283 5618824
Latitude & Longitude (Decimal): 50.71999, -3.5343
Latitude & Longitude (DMS): 50° 43′ 11.96″ N, 3° 32′ 3.48″ W
MEDIUM AND MEASUREMENTS
Material: stone
Font Shape: tub-shaped, round
Basin Interior Shape: round
Basin Exterior Shape: round
Drainage Notes: lead lining
Rim Thickness: 8.5 cm [calculated]
Diameter (inside rim): 47.5 cm*
Diameter (includes rim): 65 cm*
Basin Depth: 22.5 cm*
Font Height (less Plinth): 77.5 cm*
Font Height (with Plinth): 97.5 cm*
Notes on Measurements: * [measurements given in inches in Clarke (1913: 329)]
LID INFORMATION
Date: 17th-18th century?
Material: wood, oak?
Apparatus: no
Notes: octagonal pyramid with open-work on the sides; angel finial
REFERENCES
- Betjeman, John, An American's Guide to English Parish Churches (including the Isle of Man), New York: McDowell, Obolensky, 1958, p. 140
- Bond, Francis, Fonts and Font Covers, London: Waterstone, 1985 c1908, p. 155, 157 and ill. on p. 145
- Clarke, Kate M., "The baptismal fonts of Devon -- Part I", 45, Report and Transactions of the Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature and Art, 1913, pp. 314-329; p. 327-328, 329
- Clarke, Kate M., "The baptismal fonts of Devon -- Part IV", 48, Report and Transactions of the Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature and Art, 1916, pp. 302-319; p. 304 fn, 305
- Cox, John Charles, English Church Furniture, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1907, p. 196
- Drake, Colin Stuart, "Romanesque Fonts in Kent: the French Connections", CXXIII, 2003, Archaeologia Cantiana, 2003, pp. 333-352; p. 352fn
- Howard, F.E., English Church Woodwork: a Study in Craftmanship during the Mediaeval period A.D. 1250-1550, London: B.T. Batsford, 1919, p. 321
- Lysons, Daniel, Magna Britannia, being a concise topographical account of the several counties of Great Britain, London: Printed for T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1806-1822, vol. 6: p. cccxxx and plate
- Pevsner, Nikolaus, South Devon, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1952, p. 150, 167-168
- Stabb, John, Some old Devon churches, their roods, pulpits, fonts, etc., London: Simkin, [et al.], 1908-1916, p. 101 and pl. 101b
- Tyrrell-Green, E., Baptismal Fonts Classified and Illustrated, London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge: The Macmillan Co., 1928, p. 79