Vorden

The present font in use in the is church is noted and illustrated in Stichting Open Monumentendag Bronckhorst [https://openmonumentendagbronckhorst.nl/monument/vorden-kerkstraat-2-dorpskerk-of-antoniuskerk/] [accessed 10 November 2023] as a composite of a 17th-century(?) baptismal basin from the depot of the Rijksmuseum of Amsterdam, originally from a church in Ammerzoden; it was ceaded on a long-term loan to the church in 1954; the pedestal base was newly made for it at the time; it now stands next to the pulpit, as is customary in the Reformed churches of the Netherlands ["Het Rijksmuseum te Amsterdam stelde een doopvont ter beschikking, dat in het depot van het museum aanwezig was. Het werd in 1954 geplaatst en in langdurig bruikleen afgestaan aan de kerk in Vorden en is afkomstig uit de kerk te Ammerzoden. Het betreft een eenvoudig 17e-eeuws doopvont. Hiervoor moest een passend voetstuk gemaakt worden."] A fragment of an earlier font is moted and illustrated in De Koster-steen, Vereniging Oud Benekom, no. 26 (oktober 1988) as the "Meisterbänkske" laying outside the church, by the south wall of the tower. Occasionally these pedestals on which the officer (towncrier, sacristan, etc.) stood on to read their proclamations, edicts, etc., were re-cyclings of old church furnishings. According to Pol Herman [cf. infra] this is one such case, with the base of a Bentheimer baptismal font from the Vorden Antoniuskerkbeing put to such use. Such stones, adds him, "are also known as “roepsteen” (call stone) or “kostersteen” (sacristan stone). Several examples are known of the re-use of discarded pre-reformation baptismal fonts for above purposes. Another example is the font of the Oude Kerk at Apeldoorn, also in the Netherlands. Personally, I am now convinced that this is the very eroded base of a romanesque Bentheim baptismal font." [source: communication tp BSI from Pol Herman (e-mail of 30 December 2022)]. The font base shows indeed the typical characteristics of a Bentheimer font base, but it is too damaged and eroded to discern the details. A further communication to BSI from Pol Herman (e-mail of 17 January 2023) relays his exchange with Professor Justin E.A. Kroesen, of the University Museum at Bergen, Norway, who confirmed the identification of the font base and provided an old photograph of the same from the archive of. Regnerus Steensma