ABSTRACT

This vessel, imported from Frechen in Germany, was originally designed to hold drink. It was found in the St Paul’s Wharf area of the River Thames and is now in the Museum of London. In its material, form and decoration it is typical of hundreds of extant examples known as ‘Bartmann’ or ‘Bellarmine’ jugs and bottles, all with the distinctive stamped face of a bearded man. Its contents, however, single this object out as a rare example of what scholars have typically described as a ‘witch-bottle’, characterised as a superstitious ritual and folkish charm, a facet of popular magic.