Leadwork, Old and Ornamental and for the most part English — John Shaqi
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
Oxfordshire Clifton, Dorchester, Warborough,
(Norman)
Somerset Pitcombe
Surrey Walton-on-the-hill (Norman)
Sussex Edburton and Piecombe (early
English)
Parham (Decorated)
Wiltshire Chirton
Two of the French fonts are figured by Viollet-le-Duc,[16] that at
Berneuil is of the twelfth century and very similar to that at Tidenham
in Gloucestershire, with alternate arches occupied by figures and
foliage.
[16] _Art. Fons._
At Lombez (Gers) is a very beautiful example, small and delicate, with
two girdles of decoration, the upper row continuous foliage and figures,
but made up of one scene, a man discharging an arrow at a lion and a
basilisk, five times repeated; the lower row has sixteen quatre-foils
with figures of four varieties repeated, these are the religious orders.
It is remarked that the decorations were evidently “stock patterns”
because the upper row is much older than the lower, which is of the late
thirteenth century.
At Visine (Somme) is one of the fifteenth century with separate cast
figures in sixteen niches.
At Bourg-Achard, in Normandy, is another lead font,[17] and one is also
in the Museum of Antiquities in Rouen, this last has a long inscription
and date, 1415. There is a cast of one of these fonts in the Trocadero
collection in Paris.
[17] Dawson Turner’s _Tour_.
At St. Evrouet-de-Monford (Orne) is another very similar to our
Brookland font with Zodiac and Seasons.
In Germany, at Mayence, there is a very fine example of the fourteenth
century. And in the South Kensington Museum is a copy of a small
circular lead font in the Berlin Museum; this is cast in one piece, it
stands on three lions’ feet and has two handles, around it is an
inscription in Lombardic letters. It was presented to Treves by Bishop
Baldani in the thirteenth century.
§ IX. OF INSCRIPTIONS, ETC.
A sheet of lead is a most inviting surface for inscriptions, as may be
seen by making a trip to the leads of some cathedral or castle and
inspecting the series of names, dates, hand-marks and foot-prints left
by generations of plumbers and visitors. So lead has been one of the
chief materials used for written documents, not merely ephemeral, and
even now it would be difficult to find anything more ready to receive
the legend, more enduring to transmit it, and so easily decorated with
the charm of art which makes an object worthy to live. Our first
illustration shows the foundation record of an Egyptian King inscribed
on lead.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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