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Object type: Cross-base [1]
Measurements: H. 46 cm (18 in); W. 60 cm (23.6 in); D. 59 cm (23.2 in) Diameter of bowl 68 cm (26.8 in)
Stone type: Pale grey to pale brownish-grey, finely granular, cavernous-weathered limestone; Bembridge limestone, Bembridge Formation, Palaeogene, Tertiary; Isle of Wight
Plate numbers in printed volume: Fig. 38; Ills. 465-9
Corpus volume reference: Vol 4 p. 265-266
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It takes the form of an inverted truncated pyramid with the edges rounded to a greater or lesser degree by weathering. Around the upper edge is a heavily weathered, boldly-projecting moulding of square section which is partially broken away on faces A and D. The bowl of the font is circular with inward-curving sides and a flattened base. An irregular hole has been pierced through face B about a quarter of the way up from the mid-point of its lower edge. The decoration on all the faces has been badly damaged by weathering (Fig. 38).
A: Decorated with a pair of broad, inward-scrolling mouldings linked together along the lower edge, and touching before curling under. Each terminates in a U-shaped feature, the outer end of which is slightly concave and the edges extended to accommodate a disc. The outer edge is simply out-turned, but the inner edge of each motif develops into a narrow straight moulding running up towards the vertical axis of the face. The two mouldings converge and touch on the edge of the upper border.
B: Decorated with broad interlacing bands, the design rendered incoherent by weathering.
C: Two inward scrolling mouldings, one to each side of the face, interlace with various oblique strands; again the design is largely destroyed.
D: There is a number of broad interlacing strands, some of which appear to be longitudinally ribbed.
The hole in face B may be of relatively modern date, since it is difficult to see how the piece could have been successfully used as a pump trough with a large hole in one side. As noted in Chap. IV, whatever its original function this piece is very unlikely to have begun life as a font. Every single surviving font from southern England is of circular section, as are those from other regions. If not a font, then it seems most likely to have been a cross-base of truncated pyramidal form, a type known at Raistrick and Walton, Yorkshire (Collingwood 1915, 231–3, 250–4).
The weathered nature of the decoration makes dating extremely hazardous, but the combination of spiral-based ornament and plant ornament is suggestive of a late eighth or early ninth-century date, a period when spiral ornament was dropping out of use and plant ornament making its first consistent appearance in Anglo-Saxon art (Budny and Graham-Campbell 1981, 11). This dating is supported if the decoration on face C can be interpreted as a double-spiral animal. This form is both distinctive and rare, occurring only on two eighth-century manuscripts, fol. 16r of the Leningrad Gospels (Alexander 1978, no. 39, ill. 190) and fol. 102r of Hereford cathedral Library MS P. I. 2 (ibid., no. 38, ill. 199).
