bellarmine

Definitions

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • noun A stoneware jug of a pattern originated in the neighborhood of Cologne, Germany, in the 16th century. It has a bearded face or mask supposed to represent Cardinal Bellarmine, a leader in the Roman Catholic Counter Reformation, following the Reformation.

Examples

  • One particular transitional bottle, worth noting, dates to the last quarter of the 17th century and is a bellarmine with horseshoe-like impression in place of the usual bearded face.

    An American Witch Bottle

  • When they are found today, they are almost always broken or empty, but in Greenwich in 2004, workers found a rare, unopened example, a stoneware bellarmine jar.

    Opening a Witch Bottle

Note

The 'bellarmine' is also referred to as a "graybeard" or "longbeard".