Munich No. 2 / Minga / Munchen / München

Cast-iron vessel described as "Taufbecken [...] Lothringen Eisenguss" [i.e., a font of cast-iron from Lorraine] in the collections of the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum (Saal 15, 16/218) [https://www.bayerisches-nationalmuseum.de/en/collection/00056346] [accessed 13 May 2024]; the decription notes a baptismal font raised on three supporting figures, two animal heads on the upper edge of the basin, and bearing inscriptions around the top and bottom in a Gothic minuscule ["Taufbecken (Eisentopf), drei Trägerfiguren, zwei Tierköpfe am oberen Beckenrand, Schriftband oben und unten mit Inschriften aus gotischen Minuskeln"]. The object is made of cast iron in the shape of an inverted bell, a design that became common in the period chiefly for holy-water stoups in France; the decoration on the basin consists of a number of tiny scenes(?), a number of very thin parellel mouldings, and the above-mentioned inscriptions; the protruding upper rim has parallel mouldings on the outer lip, and there are two large anchorings in the shape of animal heads with metal rings obviously meant to carry the object around; the base is made of three figures (human and animal?). No cover present. [NB: given the design and the measurements the object is likely to have been originally made as a holy-water stoup].