This bronze bucket held the purifying Holy Water for use during baptisms and other church services. It would have been accompanied by an ‘aspergillum’ or sprinkler.

Bucket forms evolved from wooden examples. The Church was the first to use buckets of brass, which were grander than wood. Initially there were many basic similarities between the two. Brass buckets copied the tapering profile of wooden buckets and were decorated with horizontal lines encircling the rim, centre and base. Gradually metalworkers began to evolve forms particular to brass. They cast buckets with a circular stepped foot which they could decorate with a pattern of perforations. They sometimes incorporated inscriptions around the side of the vessel on the more elaborate examples. Handles were often a single iron hoop but some examples had a double hooped handle, as you see here.


Buckets were also produced for secular use but the stylistic variations were undoubtedly prompted by ecclesiastical commissions. Throughout the Middle Ages, church art was more susceptible to changes of fashion than the highly conservative domestic market.