Are we okay today? Sending a smiley bearded man on a jug to you all. - ThreadSky

yorkadventurers.bsky.social • 23 days ago

Are we okay today?

Sending a smiley bearded man on a jug to you all.

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Yep . Just another day of table tennis tariffs . The Canadians are miffed . The Mexicans now say they’re waiting a month for America to serve and I’m off to the chippy .

yorkadventurers.bsky.social•23 days ago

This is a Bellarmine wine jug.

Made predominantly in Germany and also known as Bartmann (German for bearded man) the grotesque face was a caricature of Cardinal Roberto Bellarmino.

yorkadventurers.bsky.social•23 days ago

Cardinal Bellarmino was a fierce opponent of Protestantism in the countries where the jugs were made.

The jugs which would have contained wine or beer were a double insult as he was known for his anti-alcohol stance!

yorkadventurers.bsky.social•23 days ago

Some examples were also used as 'Witch Bottles'; an item used as protection against witchcraft and could be filled with nails, hair and even urine!

Ours are empty and were likely to have just been filled with booze!

yorkadventurers.bsky.social•23 days ago

Where did our examples come from? We're not exactly sure!

It's likely they came back with merchants trading in Europe (probably Germany) in the 16th and 17th Centuries and after gracing dining tables in York found their way to the Hall.

Here endeth our little story about the bearded man jug!

maryrosemuseum.bsky.social•23 days ago

A similar jug was found on the Mary Rose - unfortunately, it was found during the 1836-40 salvage operation, so it's in the collections of the V&A museum, rather than ours.

https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O65763/bartmann-jug-unknown/

yorkadventurers.bsky.social•23 days ago

That is a magnificently bearded man. We like the oak leaf decoration too.

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