Puits-la-Vallée

Listed and illustrated in Palissy [ref.: PM60001317]: "Fonts baptismaux en pierre taillée et autrefois peinte (traces de polychromie). Les fonts se composent d'une cuve cantonnée de quatre colonnettes circulaires rattachées au fût central. Ils reposent sur un socle carré en pierre taillée appareillée et sur une seconde base taillée dans la même pierre que la cuve. [...] Les colonnettes sont couronnées de chapiteaux ornés de visages. La table est décorée de losanges imbriqués sculptés en creux. [...] Les fonts datés du 11e siècle sont très proches de ceux de l'église de Halloy." Noted in 'Cuves baptismales et fonts baptismaux : évolution formelle avant le XVIe siècle' [www.culture.gouv.fr/documentation/memoire/CATALOGUES/fontsbapt/fontsbapt_histav16e/html/fontsbapt_histav16e.html] [accessed 28 February 2016] with 11th-century date. The font is somewhat similar in general design to those at nearby churches (e.g.: Saint-Eusoye) consisting of a square frame on four angle columns from which appears to be suspended a roughly hemispherical basin [cf. Bodmin-type fonts in Cornwall]; the capitals of the four angle columns have faces or masks carved on them; there is a band of reticular lozenge pattern on the sides between the capitals on two sides; the other two have a band of saw-tooth pattern.; the columns have simple bases; the font is raised on a square lower base. The inner basin is round and there is an indentation on the upper basin surface that must have been done originally for a flat square cover; there is a metal anchor for the cover but it is modern; it is, however, located where an older anchoring staple would have been, and there is one other at the opposite side. Noted and illustrated in Dominique Vermand's Eglises de l'Oise [www.eglisesdeloise.com/monument/puits-la-vallee-eglise-notre-dame-et-saint-prix/] [accessed 23 June 2017]: "remarquable cuve baptismale en pierre d’époque romane avec un décor d’étoiles et, aux angles, de masques humains surmontant des colonnettes". In Vermand's photographs there is modern makeshift cover on the font, square, flat and blue(!)