Heukelum / Ukele

The entry for this church in Reliwiki [https://www.reliwiki.nl/index.php/Heukelum,_Torenstraat_1_-_Maria] [accessed 23 January 2022] reports a fragment of a Gothic font made of limestone ["een fragment van een hardstenen, gotische doopvont"]. The entry for this church by Catharina L. van Groningen [cf. infra] in the DBNL [Digitale Bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse Letteren] reports a fragment of a ca. 1300 baptismal font here ["Doopvont. Restanten van een achtzijdig romaans doopvont, oorspronkelijk op vijf kolommen (ca 1300) zijn na de restauratie in de zuidbeuk opgesteld"]. The entry for this church in De Stichting Vrienden van de Heukelumse kerk [http://www.vriendenvandeheukelumsekerk.nl/de-kerk/interieur/] [accessed 23 January 2022] notes: "In the church are (the remains of) three baptismal fonts. First of all, fragments of a medieval baptismal font that were found during the last (1963) restoration. Presumably it was “chopped” and removed during the Reformation. It dates from about 1300. The pulpit still has a copper bracket, which was presumably used to carry a baptismal dish. The third, wooden baptismal font is in front of the pulpit and is still in use. [...] Heukelum : remnants of an eight-sided Romanesque baptismal font (approx. 1300), originally placed on five columns, are shown in the south aisle after the restoration." Damages to the furnishings of several village churches are reported in De Vijfheerenlanden met Asperen, Heukelum en Spijk by Catharina L. van Groningen, Rijksdienst voor de Monumentenzorg, Zeist, SDU Uitgeverij Den Haag, 1989: In Asperen, Heukelum, Leerdam, Hagestein and Vianen there is report of damage as a result of the iconoclasm in the years 1566 and following. ... In the years after the Reformation, the church buildings were stripped of altars, sacraments and statues. Baptismal fonts were smashed and buried (Heukelum) or used as a foot under the new pulpit (Hagestein),... A further communication from Pol Herman to BSI (e-mail of 23 January 2022) adds: " Ton Boots, the Dutch fonter told me yesterday that such heads are devils, and that they usually carry two warty horns. He knows several examples on early-gothic fonts in the Netherlands. In all cases, only one of the four heads is a devil. At Heukelum, the horns seem to have been chopped off (during the iconoclast fury ?). Today I took a quick look in my files, and indeed I find such heads in Belgium. For example at Hoeselt and at Fooz. I hope to receive other examples from Ton Boots, but he is very busy with other issues now (local history of WWII)."