Suurhusen / Zuiderhusen

Drake (2002) notes and illustrates this as one of two Bentheim sandstone fonts of the Bergen Neuenkirchen group (Neuenkirchen and Suurhusen); Drake (ibid.) notes that "[t]he plaiting is loose and rounded at Suurhusen [...] but sharply angular at Neuenkirchen. Only these two fonts have the plaited centre band. These fonts all seem to be made of the lighter stone of the Gildeshaus quarry, suggesting that a possible separate but related workshop had been establishde by the latter part of the thirteenth century." Baptismal font consisting of a round slightly tapering basin decorated with two bands of vine and one of 3-strand braid between thin mouldings on the sides; the round-to-square pedestal base with a moulding atop, then four couchant-regadant lions at 90-degree angles, colonnettes in between. An article on the Baumberger-Sandstein-Museum in the 9 December 2015 issue of the Westfalische Nachrichten [www.wn.de/Muensterland/Kreis-Coesfeld/Havixbeck/2202405-Konkurrenz-der-Sandsteine-Bentheimer-oder-Baumberger] [accessed 9 February 2016] states that the font at Suurhusen, though being of the Bentheimer type, is made of Baumberger sandstone, not Bentheimer ["Eine schöne Taufe des Bentheimer Typs aus Baumberger Sandstein steht in der Kirche von Suurhusen (Gemeinde Hinte), die also nicht nur wegen des schiefsten Kirchturms der Welt sehenswert ist." It also elaborates on the difference between the two stones: "Bedingt durch seinen hohen Anteil an groben Quarzkörnern ist dieser Stein hart und schwer zu bearbeiten, witterungsbeständig und auch sehr ungesund für die Handwerker, die ihn bearbeiten. Insgesamt also ein völliger Gegensatz zum Baumberger Sandstein."]