- Collection type
- Object
- Description
- Fragment of a Frechen stoneware Bartmann (aka 'Bellarmine', 'Greybeard') jug. [JC 7 11 2008, 26 9 2013]
- Long description
- Fragment of a Frechen stoneware Bartmann (aka 'Bellarmine', 'Greybeard') jug. The ceramic has a mid brown salt glaze. The fragment is part of the rim, neck and greybeard face in relief. The face is smiling. [MJD 11/11/2014]
- Geographical reference
- England Oxfordshire Oxford 50 High Street
- Cultural groups
- English
- Person
- Maker Unknown Maker
- Field collector Unknown Collector
- PRM source Mrs Thomas Lawrence
- PRM source Dr Thomas Lawrence
- Date / Period
- Date made: Before 1921
- Date collected
- By 1921
- Acquisition information
- Donated: 1921
- Dimensions
- Width: max 47 mm, Length: max 80 mm
- Object numbers
- Accession number: 1921.46.2
- 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]
Search terms: Vessel, Figure, Food and Drink, Pottery, Jug, Food Accessory, Sherd