Benitier

At Saint-Sulpice, two giant clam shells have served as holy-water fonts since the eighteenth century: it is from this use that the great shell takes its French name. The maison Charles has cast the ribbed valve in silvered bronze, faithful to the deep folds that ripple from crown to rim. The shell rises on a stem above a geometric base of saturated colour. The cylindrical brass shade crowns the whole. The light follows the flutings and heightens the wave-motion frozen in the shell's edge.