Breukelen

A communication from Pol Herman to BSI (e-mail of 17 March 2022) informs of a heavy font, maybe a Romanesque holy water font, from Breukelen but sent to the Dutch Museum of History and Art in Amsterdam, as reported in GESCHIEDENIS VAN NOORDBRABANT Door Peter Norbertus Panken te Bergeik, vernieuwd en gerangschikt, 1898, Stichting Cultureel Brabant (CuBra), gedigitaliseerd door Johan Biemans. Pol Herman adds " This museum was integrated in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam in 1927. No trace of this font in the present day collection." An interesting piece of limestone supports the the pulpit, a piece much resembling the stem and lower base of a late-medieval Mosan font; the stem is octagonal and the lower base has the usual syps that transition it to square at the bottom; we have no evidence to prove that this piece was part of an actual font. A later communication from Pol Herman to BSI (e-mail of 19 March 2022) adds: "Concerning the Romanesque holy water font of Breukelen at the Dutch Museum of History and Art in Amsterdam, the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam wrote me yesterday that the object has inventory code BK-NM-8890. Following information was added: "This Romanesque holy water basin of sandstone with two drainage channels was found in the Waterschap Osterspoorbroek in Breukelen during the construction of the canal between Amsterdam and the Merwede. In 1933 the holy water trough was loaned to the Dutch Open Air Museum in Arnhem (and property was transferred in November 1948). In the appendix you will find our inventory card. Unfortunately we do not have more information or an image. For more information, please refer to the Museum NOM in Arnhem. I have contacted the NOM." A further communication from Pol Herman to BSI (e-mail of 21 March 2022) includes the correspondence between him and the NOM [cf. infra] and the NOM entry for the mortar that became a stoup: "It is, once again, an example of a sandstone mediaeval mortar having been promoted to a liturgical function. The identification at the NOM museum is NOM.3826.OV -- The “drainage channels” are simply the pouring channels. [See http://www.palmyra.me.uk/mortar-measurements.html] Pol --- Van: Inge Schriemer Verzonden: maandag 21 maart 2022 17:53 Aan: pol_herman@hotmail.be CC: Directiesecretariaat Onderwerp: RE: Doopvont uit Breukelen, in de collectie van het voormalige Nederlandsch Museum van Geschiedenis en Kunst te Amsterdam Goedenavond Pol Herman, [...] Het gaat om dit voorwerp: NOM.3826.OV, in ons collectieregistratiesysteem benoemd als ‘wijwaterbak’/’wijwatervat’. Beschrijving: Wijwaterbak met 2 afvoerkanalen. h 19 diam 34 cm. Van zandsteen, Romaans type, met 2 afvoerkanalen. Gevonden in het waterschap Otterspoor bij Breukelen. Hij is 20 cm hoog, 28 cm breed, 28 cm lang. [...] Inge Schriemer Conservator Ontwikkeling, Zingeving en Ontspanning [cf. ImagesArea for the catalogue entry in the NOM]