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Baptismal font
Baptismal font

Baptismal font

Goteke Klinghe (German (Bremen), active in the late 15th century)
1483
Object PlaceBremen, Germany
Medium/TechniqueMetal: leaded bronze (body of font: 77.7% copper, 9.9% tin, 12.4% lead)
Dimensions100.4 x 101.2 cm (39 1/2 x 39 13/16 in.)
Credit LineSarah F. Gorham and Alice H. Goddard Fund
Accession number41.561
On View
On view
ClassificationsMetalwork
Collections
Description
This superbly modeled basin is supported by four figures dressed as deacons, members of the church hierarchy, bearing the coat of arms of the font's donor. The relief decoration of the exterior consists of a Crucifixion scene and Saint Luke and the twelve apostles, disciples of Christ, all identified by their names. In old Saxon dialect is inscribed the name of the maker, the youngest member of a family of bronze founders active in Bremen in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. In the medieval period, the child being baptized was fully immersed in the font, which explains the large size of this example.
InscriptionsUpper rim: "[gote]ke klinghe de mi gegoten had got geu[e syner selen] rat s anna s katrina s doratea s margret s gardrud hel[p]" Lower rim: "anno dni mcccclxxxiii an mii[s]c[h]al men den [l]our"ProvenanceAbout 1849, purchased by M. Delange for Florentin-Achille Seillière (b. 1813 - d. 1873), Chateau de Mello, Oise, France [see note 1]; 1873, by inheritance to his sons, Raymond Seillière (b. 1845 - d. 1912) and Francois Seillière (b. 1849 - d. 1932), Chateau de Mello; May 5-10, 1890, posthumous Achille Seillière sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, lot 429, sold for fr. 19,000 to "Davis", probably Davis Brothers, London, for George Charles Spencer-Churchill (b. 1844 - d. 1892), 8th Duke of Marlborough, and Lily Spencer-Churchill (b. 1854 - d. 1909), Duchess of Marlborough, Blenheim Palace; probably sold or consigned by the estate of the Duchess of Marlborough to Davis Brothers, London; September 29, 1916, sold by Davis Brothers to Duveen Brothers, London and New York (stock no. 26652) [see note 2]; 1929, sold by Duveen to Clarence H. Mackay (b. 1874 - d. 1938), Roslyn, NY; 1939, Mackay estate consigned for sale to Jacques Seligmann and Co., New York; 1941, sold by Seligmann to the MFA for $15,000. (Accession Date: June 5, 1941)

NOTES:
[1] L. Clement de Ris, "Cuve Baptismale du Chateau de Mello," Chronique des Arts no. 30, September 11, 1875, pp. 274-275, according to whom the font was said to have come from Basel cathedral. [2] Duveen Bros. Records, Getty Research Institute, Business Records: Series I.A, New York House, Stock Book 1929 (Box 23), according to which the font came from the collection of "Lily, Duchess of Marlborough." The Duke of Marlborough was a client of Davis; see Simon Swynfen Jervis, "Charles Davis, The 15th Duke of Norfolk and the Formation of the Collection of Furniture at Arundel Castle," Furniture History 41 (2005): pp. 134-135.