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Post by ulsinus on Jun 12, 2024 11:34:03 GMT
I would welcome the opinions of forum members regarding the dating of the swords depicted on the church font. A bit of background I hope to achieve a sense of the possible earliest date for font by doing a comparative study of various elements for example the sword and possibly the armour. I'm also looking at the style of woman's clothing depicted by other figures on the font. Grateful for your advice and guidance ![st alban.jpg](//storage.forums.net/1694914/thumbnailer/YQIqjqfKHd0fOAdbVal0.png) ![font elevation john baptist.JPG](//storage.forums.net/1694914/thumbnailer/qBkk0gdMegMEbmaIZtQJ.png) ![St Catherine.JPG](//storage.forums.net/1694914/thumbnailer/yzLIpDcInnKiWPxUiABn.png)
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Post by Sir Thorfinn on Jun 12, 2024 16:01:18 GMT
What church are these on? That would help with context. As rough as the carvings are, its hard to tell, but they are type 10's at least.
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Post by ulsinus on Jun 14, 2024 14:10:29 GMT
Sir Thorfinn greetings.
Thank you for your reply.
The church is in St Albans, Hertfordshire, England. It was founded in the late Anglo-Saxon period with a given date of AD948.
Anecdotally the font is of a later period possibly the 13th or 14th century. My aim is to find some evidence that ties down the period.
Once again thank you for your interest and help.
In the mean the meantime what are Type 10 swords and the earliest period this type first appeared.
The poor state of the carvings is due in part to destruction of images undertaken in the reign of Harry VIII in the 16th century.
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Post by ulsinus on Jun 14, 2024 14:19:39 GMT
I've updated the original post with a picture of the font.
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Post by blackprince on Jun 19, 2024 2:25:21 GMT
Based on the clothing depicted, I’d say 1350-1400. It harder to narrow it down because it looks like most of the details on the fancy gent have been lost to time. The “hood” on the fancy gent isn’t worn in a fashionable way for the end of the century, so that would indicate about 1375 or earlier. However, the longer I look at him, the more it looks like he could be wearing a cape with a chapeau. If that is the case, then he would be appropriately fancy to place him past 1375 or even very close to 1400. The hem of his torso garment is also pretty high for the 1350’s. So I’m going to split the difference and date this sword circa 1375.
Wikipedia says there was a repair done to St. Alban’s Cathedral done around 1365. If it is logical that this would have been created with a few years of one of these repair efforts, that would move the date the sword circa 1365.
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