Brandval No. 1 / Brandváll

The present [December 2000] font at the parish church in Brandval is somewhat deceiving since it is really two fonts in one; the upper hexagonal part resembling a wooden cover is actually what remains of the hexagonal wooden font made ca. 1651 for the then newly-built parish church; the stone part of the font is a font in his own right, and much older, probably from the late-12th or early13th century [cf. infra]. Its original church is not recorded and local information puts in Brandval church before 1877. The old stone font is noted in Solhaug (2001) as a font made of soapstone, a hard gray mica with rusty brown spots; it consists of a round basin with tapering sides ending in a flat underbowl; there is a band of saw-tooth all around just below the upper rim and a thin rope moulding a few inches above the lower end; the stem is round and decorated with a single rope moulding, thicker than the one on the basin; the lower base is of circular domed shape and is decorated with an incised pattern of a vine and other foliage. Solhaug (ibid.) further notes that it may have been originally from a medieval church at Fyrilund [Fyrilunda] or Berger [Berga], and dated between 1175 and 1250, part of a heterogeneous group from the eastern border of Norway, and more abundant on the Swedish side; the group is was probably produced by a number of local (?) artisans and the fonts are of uneven quality of workmanship. Solhaug (ibid.) mentions similarities between this font and those at Frogn (the basin), Idd and Hof (the base), while the relief on the lower base could be compared to that on the font at Eidskog.