Church bell with coat of arms of the Abbot of Plasy Monastery, Eugen (Evžen) Tyttl

Johannes Daniel Pricquey, Klatovy, Bohemia, 1706

Cast enchased bell metal.

H: 33 cm / H: 54 cm (with headstock) / Diameter. 30 cm

Markings: On the waist of the bell: Oval bellmaker’s mark in relief inscribed IOANNES PRICQVEY

UMP 24604

Bell decorated with relief and inscriptions – in a band along the crown A FVLGVRE’ET TEMPESTATE LIBERA NOS DOMINE IESV CHRISTE (Deliver us from the lighting and storm, Lord Jesus Christ), below this the year 1706; the waist of the bell presents the Crucifixion of Christ and the inscription IESVS NAZARENIUS / REX IVDEORUM (Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews), on the opposite side is a relief figure of Our Lady of the Sorrows and the inscription A GRANDINE ET INUNDA / TIONE LIBERA NOS O FOEDE / RIS ARCA (Deliver us from hail and flood, o Ark of the Covenant); below the garlands between the figures is the coat of arms of Eugen Tyttl, Abbot of Plasy Monastery, with the initials F : E : A : P, and the bellmaker’s mark in relief.

The construction boom in religious architecture during the Baroque period provided bellmakers with numerous opportunities to cast new and re-cast old bells. Western Bohemia was the domain of two long lines of bellmaking families: the Perners, whose beginnings are associated with Jan Perner, who lived and worked in Pilsen from 1699; and the Pricquey family of Klatovy. Originally from Lorraine, Johann Pricquey Sr opened a bellmaking workshop in Klatovy in 1651. His son Stephan Pricquey (1610–1695) and grandson Johann Daniel (1657–1730) continued the family business. And it is from Johann Daniel that the bell in the collection hails, originally commissioned by Abbot Eugen Tyttl for an as yet unknown church.

Of the many bells that Johann Daniel Pricquey produced, several are particularly noteworthy: the large bell for St. Margret’s Church in Ves Touškov, donated by Chotěšov Abbey in 1705; and two bells for the Church of Saint John the Baptist in Manětín, donated by Countess Marie Gabriela Lažanská in 1715.