Asquillies / Askilîyes

Catalogued and illustrated in Ghislain (2009) as the remains of a baptismal font of the Namurois group, filiation Beauvechain, made of limestone ca. 1160-1170; the square table-top basin has a round flat moulding framing the opening of the inner basin, and the spandrels house foliage motifs; two of them, at opposite ends, show drilled holes in them, probably the anchorage of an old cover; the sides of the basin appear plain; a piece of the stem has a thin moulding on it. Ghislain (ibid.) informs that the font and its stem were restored to the church by E. Champenois, the priest, ca. 1993; previously the dismounted font and its stem were in the rectory garden; the large part of the base that was by the cemetery wall is now reported missing. [NB: the church was sold for use as private dwelling in 2014 -- the whereabouts of the font fragments has not been confirmed].