This is a thirteenth century font and I always very much like these because of the history and heritage that they hold. It’s from the church in Behlendorf, located a little to the south of Lübeck, which was built in around 1250. The church partly fell down in 1837, so it was decided that they’d build a new one as they didn’t want the old one that was evidently not structurally sound. They got themselves a new font, designed by C. A. Schönemann, as they thought the older one was getting a bit worn. They kept it for a bit, perhaps to see if they liked the new one, but then decided that it would be sent to a museum (or somewhere, I’m not sure where as this museum is from the early twentieth century) in 1882.
I accept that it’s a bit knocked about, but I think that’s part of the charm and it would have seen nearly 600 years of baptisms. When this was installed in the church, the area was part of the Holy Roman Empire before becoming part of the Hanseatic Free City of Lübeck. The stone from the church had been imported from the island of Gotland in Sweden, so it had been on a bit of a journey to get there.
I think it’s rather charming and it has pride of place in one of the exhibition rooms of the museum.