Brussels No. 7 / Bruxelles

Baptismal font consisting of a square table-top type basin with a blind arcade of round arches on columns with capitals and bases on the sides, six arches per side; the upper surface of the basin has spandrils decorated with one cherub head, one pair of facing doves, and two fabulous animals or monsters; rounded underbowl; on a broad central shaft decorated with a single moulding, and a round-to-square lower base with leaf motifs at 90-degree angles. The inner well is not lined and has a central drain. The font appears listed in the collections of the Musées royaux d'art et d'histoire de Bruxelles / Koninklijke Musea voor Kunst en Geschiedenis - Brussel as being from the Naams workshop, with date ca. 1150 [illustrated in Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/dirkvde/4073338806/in/set-72157622727279932/ [accessed 27 January 2010]] [NB: this font is somewhat similar to another table-top font of approximately the same priod in the Musées royaux..., said to be from Namur [cf. Index entry for Brussels No. 10]]