Wicked Wessex!
Bellarmine jug
Object from: Wiltshire Museum
This might look like an innocent jug, but beer and wine weren’t the only liquids these ‘witch bottles’ carried…
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This might look like an innocent jug, but beer and wine weren’t the only liquids these ‘witch bottles’ carried…
Salt-glazed stoneware jugs like this were common in the 1600s for carrying beer and wine. But they also had another use – as ‘witch bottles’ to ward off evil curses.
People would fill a jug with human hair, fingernails and sometimes blood or urine! Then it was sealed and hidden, usually upside-down, in the home. They were often put above fireplaces or doorways.
This jug was made in the Netherlands or Germany. It is one of a pair, thought to have been discovered by a labourer digging a road near Bath.
The bearded face on the jug is said to be Roberto Bellarmino, a Catholic cardinal (1600s). The name for the beer jugs was possibly coined by Protestants to make fun of Bellarmino because he disapproved of alcohol.
Wiltshire Museums chose the Bellarmine jug to tell the story of Wicked Wessex. It’s an example of how suspicion – especially of witchcraft and evil spells – was rife in the 1600s and 1700s right across Europe.
This jug was left at Wiltshire Museum in 2010 by a mystery donor. Thankfully, it didn’t have any gruesome contents.
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