Brussels No. 8 / Bruxelles

Basin made of a ferruginous sandstone [the museum label identifies the stone as limestone "grès distien" ['grès tertiaire à ciment ferrugineux' from Diest, Belgium], the unfinished work of a Brabant workshop] of a common design of this period and place: from a square plan, the main body of the basin is round, practically cylindrical, and the angles are usually carved into human heads; in this case the carving was not completed, so we can see the stages in which this type of font was produced; three sides are roughed out and the angles are ready to have the finer carving work done; the fourth side, however, is still rough; the metal staples for the cover are in place, which may indicate the font was used even though never completed. The pedestal base on which is is displayed in the museum is modern. [NB: one of the rounded protrusions were the heads are usually carved is broken, the damage may be related to the initial setting of one of the cover staples, as the one in that spot appears to be drilled in a receded distance in comparison with the other; be that as it may, the damage led the masosn to abandon the piece; it is possible that they smashed the basin -notice the breakage lines where the font has been repaired- and abandoned].