Binche No. 1

Noted in Ghislain (1986) as the fragment of a Tournais font of the transitional period between the original square fonts to the round-with-heads type. Listed in Drake (2002) as a lost fragment of a Tournai font. BALaT KIK-IRPA lists and illustrates two related object for this church: 1)a holy-water stoup made of stone in the 16th century [http://balat.kikirpa.be/object/10040820], and 2)a baptismal font made of marble in 1622. with a brass cover[http://balat.kikirpa.be/object/10040821]. In a communication between Jean-Claude Ghislain and Pol Herman (e-mail of 22 April 2022) Ghislain wrote: "Voici quelques repères relatifs aux éléments de fonts baptismaux romans tournaisiens dont vous citez les noms de lieux [...] Binche : les fragments de la cuve carrée furent volés vers 1975 dans une réserve lapidaire". A communication from Pol Herman to BSI (e-mail of 24 April 2022) informs that the fragment of the Tournia-font basin were kept at the lapiday museum in the "Caves Bette", which once served as refuge house in Binche of the Abbey Bonne-Espérance (at Estinnes/Vellereille-les-Brayeux), and the Caves Bette are located at the site of the old feudal castle, the original core of the town of Binche. In the seventies, negligence by the public authorities and the delay in carrying out a restoration plan, led to a profound deterioration of the building. Roofs and walls collapsed, the building became inaccessible to the public, but still housed the stone fragments. Around 1975, the musée lapidaire was looted, and the stone fragments were stolen." A later communication from Pol Herman to BSI (e-mail of 21 August 2022) he writes: "The fragments of a Tournai-type font were kept in the “Musée lapidaire aux caves Bette” at Binche. The museum was in very bad state, and the collection was stolen in 1975." This same communication contains a message written 25 April 2022 to Pol Herman by Jean-Claude Ghislain in which he makes reference to a filn on Binche in which he [Ghislain] fragments of the old font may be discernible: "’ai trouvé sur Internet un film sur Binche, dans lequel on montre l’intérieur des caves Bette en 1970. Je pense que des fragments de la cuve tournaisienne sont visibles dans ce film. Le film se trouve sur le site de SONUMA, les archives audiovisuelles. Le film s’appelle : découvrir Binche et les Binchois. Le lien ci-dessous : https://www.sonuma.be/archive/ce-pays-est-a-vous-du-17021970 La description des caves Bette commence après 32 minutes et 11 secondes. Après 33 minutes et 10 secondes, je vois en bas à droite une arcade, qui me fait penser à celle de Spiennes."