Font (present location), Burgagery-Lands, Co. Tipperary
Co. Tipperary |
Religious Objects
A sandstone baptismal font sits in the open air in the yard to the north of a Franciscan friary church in Burgagery-Lands, County Tipperary, which is a quietly odd situation for an object whose original purpose required an interior.
A plaque attached to the font explains the displacement: it was moved here from the church of St Mary's in Clonmel, leaving it as a kind of architectural refugee, no longer in the building it was made for.
The font itself is a careful piece of stonework. Square on the outside, measuring roughly 61 centimetres across and 28 centimetres deep, it has an internal circular bowl of about 52 centimetres in diameter, with a small central drainage hole at the base. The four external angles are chamfered, meaning the corners are cut away at an angle rather than left sharp, and the surfaces carry horizontal tooling marks left by the mason's chisel. At each corner, an engaged round column, one that is attached to the body of the font rather than freestanding, rises to a roll-moulding and a carved sphere. It is a formal, considered design, combining geometric regularity with small decorative flourishes that repay close attention. Fonts of this kind served as the vessel for baptismal water and typically occupied a fixed position near the entrance of a church, which makes the outdoor, secondary placement of this one all the more curious.