Mountnessing

Noted in passing in Coller (1861). Described in Cox & Harvey (1907): "plain octagonal font at Mountnessing, also engraved by Suckling, which is probably Early English" [NB: the reference is to Alfred Inigo Suckling, 1796-1856, who published a number of engravings of baptismal fonts in his "Suckling Papers" This particular reference may be to a drawing of the font in his Memorials and Antiquities of Essex, of 1846]. Noted in the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (Essex, 1916-1923): "Font: octagonal bowl, each face with a square panel enclosing carvings of three fishes, compass, square and mallet, a formy cross, flowers and foliage, late 15th-century." Bettley & Pevsner (2007) describe the font much along the lines of the RCHM, and suggest a date in the late 15th century; they also indicate this font was originally "from All Saints, Hutton", and inform that the pedestal and cover are modern, by Bodley & Garner, who were responsible for the 1889-1890 restoration of the church. The British Listed Buildings database [http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-373740-church-of-st-giles-mountnessing] [accessed 16 July 2010] reports: "Font with octagonal bowl, each face with a square panel enclosing carvings of 3 fishes, compass, square and mallet, a formy cross, flowers and foliage, moved from Hutton Parish Church (qv) in 1873 (the previous font is illustrated in Quarterly Papers on Architecture (ed. Weale), 1845." The original (?) font is noted and illustrated [drawing] in the Blackmore Area Local History website entry for Mountnessing [http://www.blackmorehistory.co.uk/mountnessing.html] [accessed 16 July 2010]: "The font is a low and perfectly plain octagonal one.
[NB: we have no information on the present whereabouts of the earlier font]