English leadwork : its art & history / Lawrence Weaver.

  • Weaver, Lawrence, 1876-1930.
Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: English leadwork : its art & history / Lawrence Weaver. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    42/294 (page 20)
    Fig. 32.—Gloucester Museum. Fig. 33.—Lewes Castle. tion. The two lower bands are alike in pattern and differ from the top band. It is presumably Norman. The font at Parham (Fig. 24) is the only example unquestionably of the fourteenth century, and stands alone in treatment, t here exists not only no other font, but no lead water butt even, which relies, as this does, chiefly on lettering as decoration. The font is divided vertically and horizontally by long panels, each bearing the legend “ H. C. Nazar” (Jesus Nazarenus) in beau¬ tiful Lombardic lettering. The spaces so enclosed are filled with the shield of arms of one Andrew Peverell, who was knight of the shire in 1351 and probably gave the font. The Tangley font is sparingly decorated in a matter-of-fact way. Six strips of baluster shape divide the bowl, and the ornaments be¬ tween are two roses (Fig. 27), three crowned thistles, and three fleurs-de-lys (Fig. 26). With such treatment it is safe to assign the work to early in the seventeenth century. Slimbridge (Pig. 29) is quite in the cis¬ tern manner, with date, initials, and rosettes. Down Hatherley font (Fig. 28) is very small, but the ornament is ambitious. Round the bottom there runs a band of Tudor crest¬ ing, which might well have been used, and probably was used, to decorate rain-water heads. The stars are of a type familiar on London cisterns, and the lozenges are of a pleasant formality. Interesting too, among the late exam¬ ples, is that of Aston Ingham (Fig. 25). The date 1689 appears on the bowl as do the initials (unpleasant habit) of the givers of the font, W. R. and W. M. The acanthus leaves are good, which can scarcely be said of the scrappy leafwork below the initials. There are also the inevitable cherubs and rosettes. For the font which stands on the lawn at Greatham House near Pulborough, Sussex (Fig. 30), little can be said. It has fallen to Fig. 34.—Maidstone Museum