Leadwork, Old and Ornamental and for the most part EnglishLethaby, W. R. (William Richard)
History
Leadwork, Old and Ornamental and for the most part English
Lethaby, W. R. (William Richard)
Leadwork
In the months, the Mower, the man raking, and especially the Reaper, are
well designed; the man pruning is also good, and the girl with the long
stalked lilies in her hand is charming. The four last are shown in the
sketches given. The pillars are varied, every third standing on the loop
as shown.
[Illustration: FIG. 29.--Font, Edburton, Sussex.]
The font at Edburton in Sussex is 21 inches in diameter and 14 inches
high; it has a wide band of foliage and at the top a row of trefoil
panels. At Piecombe, the adjoining parish, the upper row of small
trefoil arches and the narrow band of ornament are the same, but instead
of the lower panels there is a row of round-headed arches.
At Lancourt, or Llancault, and Tedenham in Gloucestershire there are
fonts in duplicate. These are much larger, 2 feet 8 inches in diameter
by 1 foot 7 inches high. An arcade of twelve arches surrounds the bowl;
each compartment has a throned figure or a panel of foliage alternately.
There are two varieties of figure and foliage, each is thrice repeated
and the little columns are twisted and decorated. These two fonts are
evidently of the twelfth century.[11] At Frampton-on-Severn is a font
with similar seated figures and foliage.
[11] For engravings see _Archæologia_, vol. xxix.
At Wareham in Dorsetshire the font is hexagonal with two standing
figures under arches in each face, twelve altogether. The sides instead
of being vertical slope outwards. The style seems central Norman not
transitional, like several of the examples.
At Dorchester, Oxfordshire, the bowl is 2 feet 1 inch diameter 14 inches
deep, it has an arcade wholly of seated figures of bishops. It is a very
beautiful work, the figures are extremely well modelled, and the whole
in good condition, the lead of great substance.
Walton-on-the-hill, Surrey, has a similar font 14 inches high,
surrounded by an arcade, and in each compartment a sitting figure. A
sketch of one arch given is necessarily rough, as the modelling, even at
first soft and sketchy, has suffered some injury in the use of 700
years.
At Wansford, Northamptonshire, is another of these with arcades and
figures.[12]
[12] _See_ Parker’s _Glossary_, vol. iii.
[Illustration: FIG. 30.--Font, Walton, Surrey.]
At Childrey, in Berkshire, there is also a font with twelve mitred
bishops with pastoral staffs and books.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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