Saint-Marc-à-Loubaud / La voute gelée / Lavaud de Gelage / Lavaud de Gelee / Saint Marc Aloubaud / Saint Marcaloubaud / Sent Marc a Lobaud

The Inventaire général, ADAGP, 1977. [Palissy IM23000840] refers to a group of fonts which "datent vraisemblablement du IXe siècle"; it includes a totally plain font "en pierre taillée, sans décor" at Saint-Marc-à-Loubaud, and another, at Allouis, decorated with a round arcade. Curiously the illustration captioned as "Fig. 1 – Cuve baptismale, église Saint-Marc-Sainte-Agathe, Saint-Marc-à-Loubaud (23). Graveron © Inventaire général, ADAGP, 1977. Notice Palissy IM23000840" in this source is not plain at all, but has an arcade on it, as well as a human head or face, other motifs and is supported on what appears to be a couchant lion. The updated [31/8/1994] entry in Palissy [PM23000165] [accesssed 27 February 2016] has: "fonts baptismaux [en] granite [...] La cuve circulaire est supportée par une base zoomorphe [...] La base représente un lion. Le pourtour de la cuve est décoré de traits verticaux évasés à leurs extrémités." It adds: " Ces fonts baptismaux, parfois dénommés bénitier, ont anciennement été datés du 9e siècle (?)", and gives the updated dating as "Haut Moyen Age". The font was still outside the west doorway in May 2012 [cf. Images area] covered in lichens; a more recent photograph [cf. Images area] shows that the font has been removed from that locattion since that date, brought inside the church and has been cleaned as well. The church itself is 15th-century, with no record of an earlier one here; did this font come from elsewhere, or is it just a crude work in imitation of earlier ones? A third posibility to consider is whether it was re-cut from the base of a pillar, or similar.