Wijnbergen

Ortt van Schonauwen (1858) reports the discovery (?) of this octagonal object ca. 1848, used earlier as a water-trough for the animals; believed to have originated in the disappeared chapel at Darthuizen, at some time in Broekhuizen; the large basin was cleaned up and placed as a garden ornament. OvS gives a fairly good description of the carved decoration on it, and notes the drilled hole in one of the masks [female?], a hole that he suggests was not original but made at a later date; he suggests ta det in the 13th century for the object, which he describes as part of a baptismal font. Listed and illustrated in the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed [ref. 172.017], as a garden ornament that was formerly the basin of a baptismal font from the demolished chapel at Darthuizen, in the municipality of Leersum. Schönlank (2001) reports a font formerly from the Darthuizen chapel as 'gotisch' [=Gothick], a "maar volgens sommigen XIX-folly". A large stone basin that may have been part of a baptismal font; it is octagonal with tapering sides that are decorated with a shallow trefoiled arch that frames each side; inside the arches are a series of motifs: a Green-Man's head, two large floral motifs, and five (?) fabulous animals, the identification of which is further difficulted by the damage they have suffered; the inner well is round and there is damage to the upper rim at opposite ends that suggests the former presence of metal staples from an old cover. Kasteel De Kemnade is a manorial farm in Wijnbergen that had been built before 1475. This may be the font referred to in C. Blankestijen's article 'Het doopvont van de kapel in Darthuizen' (Nieuwsbrief Hoetwas, 3 (1998), nr. 1, p. ...; nr. 3, p. ...), an entry in SABINE [http://bibe.library.uu.nl/zoek/sabine/index.php?rec=13255355] [accessed 4 December 2015].