HANS ELDER WILDT (before 1561 – after 1606)
Origin and Life
Hans Elder Wildt was born before 1561 in Neukirch in Saxony. He later settled in Jáchymov, an important mining and craft centre of the time.
Between 1565 and 1581 he had eight children. Some of them probably died in early childhood, since three of the children were given the name John.
In 1572 he was accused by the town council of a moral offence for “sleeping with his wife while she was pregnant and shortly after childbirth”. In reality his daughter Marghareta was born in January of that year and another daughter, Salome, in November. Nevertheless he was convicted and even faced expulsion from the guild. Thanks to the intervention of his friends he was released a year later and had to pay a fine of four thalers.
Craft Activity in Jáchymov
In 1580 Wildt became master of a newly established guild that united pewterers and jug makers. At the same time he worked as a bell founder.
In that year it was ordered that all bells and pewter products must bear the mark of the town and the mark of the master who owned or managed the workshop. At the same time the sale of products from outside towns was prohibited except during annual fairs.
Wildt’s mark consisted of the letters HW with a bell and the town symbol with the letters SI and crossed miners’ hammers.
After him the workshop was continued by his son Johannes Wildt and the master Hans Zink.
Works
Several bells and pewter works created by Hans Wildt have been preserved.
In Jáchymov his bell can still be found in the Church of All Saints, also known as the Hospital Church. It represents the oldest movable monument of the town. Another important work is the rim of the baptismal font in the dean’s church of St. Joachim, decorated with scenes from the Passion of Christ.
Among the oldest bells in the Czech Republic is the bell in the Church of St. Wenceslas in Radošov from 1593.
Another bell dated 1594 hangs in the Church of St. Anne in Boží Dar, where a baptismal font from the same workshop has also been preserved.
A bell now located in the town tower of Chomutov originally came from the church in Stranná and was commissioned from Wildt by Linhart of Štampach and his wife Kateřina of Sertvic.
Other bells made by Wildt can be found in Valeč, Vroutek and formerly also in the village of Lochotín in the Hradiště military training area.
