Bellarmine Bottle

Bellarmine bottle, brown glaze; face floral decoration in shield under face; excavated at Ingoldisthorpe in the 1950's, west of the railway line. Bellarmine jugs from Holland showed the face of the unpopular Cardinal Bellarmine, an Italian clergyman opposed to the Dutch Reformed Church in the 16th century. It was common practice to insult the Cardinal by smashing the bottle after wine or beer had been drunk.