Bellarmine or Bartmann Jug

A very fine example of a 17th Century Bellarmine jug or bottle, these were potted mostly in Germany but also in Holland, Belgium, London and even in early Jamestown in America, they are very hard but brittle, the wonderful glaze was produced by throwing salt into the hot kiln when firing it, this one has a wonderful tiger glaze made in the early sixteen hundreds. The face is of Cardinal Bellamine who attempted to stop people from drinking Gin and these bottles held Gin.