Lucas Bacon

Lucas Joseph Speck (born August 17, 1755 in Heidelberg ; † August 21, 1819 there ) was a bell founder in Heidelberg.

Life

He was the son of the bell founder Anselm Franz Speck (1728–1798) and Maria Catharina Knebel. He was married to Clara Cavallo.

At first he worked together with his father, who had relocated the foundry to Heidelberg in 1753 and from the 1760s received various privileges from the Electorate of the Palatinate for the delivery of bells and fire engines. In 1803, Lucas Speck sent another successful request to the Palatinate authorities for protection from "foreign" competition. Around 1800 the Speck'sche foundry was located at Neuenheimer Landstrasse 4. This is where the Silberner Anker restaurant was later built , and remnants of the foundry were found when it was demolished. Lucas Speck's house was on the other side of the Neckar, on the corner of Haspelgasse and Neckarstaden, where the Gasthaus Vier Jahreszeiten is now. In 1934 the inn still had an artistically carved door with emblems from the Speck seal.

A bell signed jointly by Anselm Franz and Lucas in Karlsbad-Spielberg has been preserved from 1788. Ittlingen and Handschuhsheim also received such a bell that year. In 1789 bells by Anselm Franz and Lucas Speck went to the Remigius Church in Nieder-Ingelheim. Lucas Speck later signed by himself, for example on the bell from 1791 of the Reformed Church in Spechbach that has not survived and from 1796 on numerous bells in southwest Germany. At least 70 bells are documented from his workshop, of which only a fraction is still preserved today due to the delivery of bells in the two world wars.

On the bell for the church in Waldangeloch from 1819, which has not been preserved, Speck's widow is responsible for the casting. The two bells for the Reformed Church in Schluchtern from the same year that have not been preserved still bear Speck's name, but the order was already carried out by the Sprinkhorn & Schrader foundry in Frankenthal on behalf of the widow. In addition to bells, Lucas Speck also poured fire spray tubes.

Received bells

Bell by Lucas Speck from 1810 at the Catholic. Church in Siegelsbach

The surviving bells from Lucas Speck's foundry include:

• Bell of the orphanage in Landstuhl (1796)
• Three-part bell of the church in Modautal-Neunkirchen (1797)
• Big bell (1798) and small bell (1804) of the Nazarius church in Lorsch
• Bell of the church in Roßdorf-Gundernhausen (1799)
• Cemetery bell in Edingen-Neckarhausen (1802)
• Bell of the chapel in Gundelsheim-Bernbrunn (1803)
• Bell of the church in Sinsheim-Weiler (1805)
• Bell of the mountain church in Bad Rappenau-Heinsheim (1805, originally from Aglasterhausen-Michelbach)
• Bell of the Protestant church in Schönbrunn-Schwanheim (1806)
• Bell of the Protestant Nikolauskirche in Sinheim-Dühren (1807)
• Baptismal bell of the Protestant church in Sulzfeld (1808)
• Bell of the Johanniskirche in Salzhemmersdorf- Benstorf (1808, originally in the Catholic church in Heiligkreuzsteinach )
• Bell of the cath. Church of the Assumption in Philippsburg (1809)
• Bell in the Museum for Sacred Art and Liturgy in Heidelberg (1809, originally from the Anna Church of the Heidelberg Hospital)
• Bell of the cath. Laurentius Church in Hemsbach (1809)
• Bell next to the cath. George's Church in Siegelsbach (1810)
• Bell of the Protestant church in Reichartshausen (1810)
• Bell of the Catholic Church in Wiesloch-Schatthausen (1814)
• Bell of the cath. St. Konrad Church in Mannheim-Rheinau (1817)
• Cemetery bell in Angelbachtal-Michelfeld (1817, originally in Bad Rappenau-Grombach)
• Bell of the Protestant church in Wiesenbach (1819)

Individual evidence

1. ^ WW Hoffmann : Franz Wilhelm Rababliatti. Court builder from the Palatinate, Heidelberg 1934, p. 8.

literature

• Norbert Jung: In the footsteps of the bell foundry family Speck , Heilbronn 2011
• Hans Rolli: Bell foundry tradition in Heidelberg , in: Badische Heimat 1963 , p. 80 ff.