Borssum No. 1 / Borßum / Borshem / Borsum / Borzhem / Emden-Borssum / Gross Borssum / Gross Borsum

Zeitschrift des Historischen Vereins für Niedersachsen for 1865 (Hannover, 1866: 402) mentions a church at Klein-Borssum and another at Gross-Borssum, the latter with a stone font; no further details given. A stone font in this church is noted in Mithoff (1871-1880). Listed in Ligtenberg (1915). Noted in Drake (2002) as a baptismal font made of sandstone the origin of which is not yet established [i.e., whether Bentheim of Baumberg] [NB: Drake (ibid.) has two entries for Borssum in his location index: one as 'Borssum', which gives the location as "Emden Landesmuseum", and is classed with the Bentheim Larrelt group of fonts; the other entry is under 'Gross Borssum' and it refers to the comment on the type of stone [cf. supra] -- BSI found only one entry for a stone baptismal font in the Ostfriesisches Landesmuseum Emden [www.landesmuseum-emden.de/306-0-68] [accessed 15 February 2016]; it is for the Bentheim font from Marinwehr]. The baptismal font consists of a round slightly tapering basin decorated with (top down) a vine, a moulding, another vine, another moulding, and a band of fan-frieze pattern; raised on a round-to-square pedetal base with a roll moulding atop, four couchant-regardant lions at 90-degree angles of the central shaft, and four colonnettes attached to the central shaft between the lions. No cover present. The font is now located in the early-20th century Reformierte Kirche which replaced the demolished medieval church in former Klein Borssum. The present font in this church, St-Nikolauskirche, appears modern [cf. Index entry for Borssum No. 2 for the disappeared font from the medieval church at Klein Borssum]