Beille / Beillé

Described and illustrated in Le patrimoine des communes de la Sarthe (2001, v. 2: 1583) as a polygonal mounted double font dated probably to the late 15th or early 16th century; the main body is octagonal with plain vertical sides and one deep scotia towards the lower part of the sides; the underbowl is rounded and covered in deep-relief foliage; the pedestal base of this body is also octagonal and plain except for the mouldings that mark its splaying out towards the bottom. The second and narrower body is also octagonal , although it is made in the shape of a standing angel holding a shield charged with the coat of arms of the Saint-Mars family. This same source (ibid.) informs that the arms belong to the probable donor, "Mathurin de Saint-Mars, vicomte de Brestau, seigneur de Saint-Mars, de Rouperroux, de Saint-Georges-du-Rosay et de Maugasteau, en Céton", who had inherited the whole from Philippe Papillon, dead wihtout children in 1494. Saint-Mars himself died in 1509 and it is believed that the font was donated some time between those two deaths.