Massenheim

Noted and illustrated in Ferdinand Luthmer's Die Bau- und Kunstdenkmäler der Kreise Unter-Westerwald, St. Goarshausen, Untertaunus und Wiesbaden Stadt und Land (Frankfurt am Main: Keller, 1914) [https://archive.org/details/bauundkunstdenkm05luth/page/n5/mode/2up?view=theater] [accessed 5 November 2022] as a Baroque font decorated with angel heads and putti, and bearing the inscription "CHRISTOFORUSFLORUS [...] DER CRON SCHWEDEN WOLBESTELDER HAUPTMANN DE TAUFSTEIN MACHEN LASSEN". The story relevant to the font and its inscription is told in Eva Wilke's Der Taufstein ist Zeuge: Die Schweden während des 30-jährigen Krieges im Main-Taunus-Kreis / Heimatforscher blicken in die Geschichte [http://www.historische-eschborn.de/berichte/Main-Taunus-Kreis/Taufstein_1631/body_taufstein_1631.html] [accessed 5 November 2022] and it involves the presence of Swedsh troops in the area in aid of the German Protestants here; Wilke informs that the Swedish captain Christophorus Florus who donated the font in 1631 turned out to be no Swede at all, but the son of the pastor at Maseenheim at the time. The entry for this church in Die Kirche zu Massenheim: 'Espresso - Führer' durch die Massenheimer Kirche [https://docplayer.org/196545062-Die-kirche-zu-massenheim.html] [accessed 5 November 2022] confirms some of the font details from other sources [cf.supra] and adds that the location of the font inside the church has remained the same since 1966, that it raceived its present painting scheme in 1951 and that it was restored in 2001

The font, which is painted from top to bottom, consists of an octagonal basin decorated with a running inscription [cf. supra] and four large cherub heads nelow; the stem is also octagonal and has four standing putti with large leaves between them; short octagonal lower base and square plinth, also short. No cover present..