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1911.29.95

Frechen stoneware Bartmann (aka 'Bellarmine', 'Greybeard') jug. [JC 7 11 2008, 26 9 2013]

1911.29.95

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Collection type
Object
Description
Frechen stoneware Bartmann (aka 'Bellarmine', 'Greybeard') jug. [JC 7 11 2008, 26 9 2013]
Long description
Frechen stoneware Bartmann (aka 'Bellarmine', 'Greybeard') jug. The vessel has a brown salt glaze. It has a bulbous body and tapers to a narrow neck and narrow base. The jug has a handle between the shoulder and neck. The front of the vessel is impressed an image of a bearded man and a smaller oval floral image. [MJD 16/10/2013]
Person
Maker Unknown Maker
Field collector Percy Manning
PRM source Percy Manning
Date / Period
Date made: 1600-1699
Date collected
By 1911
Acquisition information
Donated: 1911
Materials and processes
Material Clay, Process Glazed, Process Thrown
Dimensions
Diameter: max 125 mm, Height: max 217 mm
Object numbers
Accession number: 1911.29.95
Research and responses

Dan Hicks advises that [some of] these jugs were used as apotropaic devices ('witch bottles'), in part through an association with the human body and its contents. They were placed under walls, under hearths, and in similar locations. The classic reference work on such practices is The Archaeology of Ritual and Magic, by Ralph Merrifiel, London: Batsford (1987). (See also his earlier study 'The Use of Bellarmines as Witch Bottles', in Guildhall Miscellany, no. 3 (February 1954), pp. 3-15.) The use of Bartmann jugs in this way continued at least into the mid 18th century, but similar practices with other vessels continued in England into the 20th century. The practice was especially common in south-east England (see 'The Archaeology of Counter-Witchcraft and Popular Magic', by Brian Hoggard, in Beyond the Witch Trials: Witchcraft and Magic in Enlightenment Europe, edited by Owen Davies and Willem de Blécourt, Manchester: Manchester University Press (2004), pp. 167-186). [AS 02/06/2009; JC 26 9 2013]

This image of this pot was studied by Maureen Mellor, archaeological ceramic specialist and tutor at Oxford University Department for Continuing Education, on 23 September 2014. She noted the pot was salt glazed stoneware. Maureen gave a time period for the pot as 17th century. [MJD 23/09/2014]

Search terms: Vessel, Pottery, Jug

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