Baptismal Font (St.'s Paul and Peter Church)

A basin or vase, serving as a receptacle for baptismal water in which the candidate for baptism is immersed, or over which he is washed, in the ceremony of Christian initiation. In the Church's present practice it is ordinarily a decorative stone basin, though metal or wood are used; supported on a pedestal or columns at a convenient height for receiving the water which is poured over the head of the person baptized, a form which marks the term of a development graphically illustrating the history of the mode of conferring baptism.

Text taken from the New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia.

Picture taken at Saint's Paul and Peter church in Newport.