Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller

Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller

Baptismal Font_plaster

c.1920

Plaster, Paint

18.9 x 9.4 in.

2006.333a&b

Danforth Art Museum at Framingham State University Fuller Gallery 204 (Meta Fuller 5, Shelf 4)

Sculpture

Baptismal font in 2 pieces: a large base with hole in center of bottom and a basin that sits on top of base. Base (A) has 8 panels around sides, each with some decoration or inscription. Decorations in panels include the markings described above as well as four kneeling angels, one in each of the remaining four panels. Grape leaves decorate the top edge of the base, demarcating the beginning/end of inscription. Stylized trees/leaves separate each of the 8 panels around the base. Basin (B) rests on base. Grapes and grape leaves decorate the rim of the basin, with the inscription described above. Paper tag ("70") attached with masking tape.

Collection was gifted to the Danforth in 2006. Unfortunately they sat uncatalogued for close to 10 years. It took until an IMLS grant awarded in 2015 through 2016 for this collection to be catalogued and put into the collections database. - Rachel 2021 In 1919 Reverend John Henry Wilson reached out to Meta to create a font for his chapel in Ocean Point, Maine. This font was to commemorate the chapel he and his father Reverend Lewis G. Wilson built, a very small but quaint church built out of local stone right along the coast. In addition, the font was as a memorial to John's wife Lucille and their daughter Janet who died in Framingham, Massachusetts during the 1917 flu pandemic. At Danforth we have a clay process piece of what the font would look like if it was cast in bronze. Both the font and the church (now called Wilson Memorial Chapel) are still there today at Ocean Point, Maine!

Gift of the Meta V. W. Fuller Trust Part of the Estate of Meta V. W. Fuller from 1968-2001. In the collection of the Meta V. W. Fuller Trust, 2001-2006

Fair: Base (A): Numerous chips around top edge where basin sits. Some loss of plaster in bottom around drain hole, exposing burlap reinforcement in plaster. Basin (B): Some significant chipping on outer edge. Numerous liquid splatters (paint? thin plaster?).

Gift of the Meta V. W. Fuller Trust

Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller
Baptismal Font
c.1920
Plaster, Paint
18.9 x 9.4 in.