Harberton

Listed in Lysons (1806-1822) as a baptismal font "among many of circular form and an early age, enriched with various carved mouldings, wreaths, scrolls, or foliage". White's Gazetteer of 1850 has it as "Anglo-Norman". Described and illustrated in Clarke (1916): "A very beautiful font; the ornament is almost pure Byzantine. It is of red sandstone; the bowl, unusually deep, is raised on a low circular shaft, with a modern base. The bowl is ornamented by ten medallions, star pattern; below the medallions is a cable, below again a row of double flutings, one above the other. Then there is a round moulding which is not a necking to the shaft, but rather the foot of the bowl. The modern base [...]. The rim [of the bowl] has had to be patched in four places, probably where the staples of the cover were wrenched away, taking pieces of stone with them. Also two of the medallions have been cemented where they were cracked. The bowl has a lead lining." Noted in Pevsner (1952): "Font. Circular, Norman with a frieze of rosettes and below first a band of cable and then a frieze of upright petals." In Hoskins (1954): "The font is very beautiful Norman work, of red sandstone, with almost pure Byzantine ornament." The town of Harberton [http://fp.jculf.plus.com/main.htm] informs that this font is one of the items remaining from the original church: a girdle font -one in 12 in Devon according to the site- in reference to the rope moulding that 'tightens' its middle; made of sandstone; wooden cover is 19th-century.