Identifying stoneware and Bellarmine jars

Salt-glazed, orange-peel surfaces, and the bearded face of the Bartmann jug.

Stoneware is fired so hard it rings and holds water unglazed; most historic stoneware wears a salt glaze with a distinctive dimpled 'orange peel' texture. Rhenish workshops dominated the export trade — grey bodies with cobalt blue (Westerwald), brown iron-washed surfaces (Frechen), and the famous Bartmann or 'Bellarmine' jugs with a bearded face mask on the neck.

Bartmann sherds are instantly recognisable: part of a moulded beard, an eye, or the rosette medallion from the belly. English brown stoneware follows from the late 17th century; 19th-century utilitarian stoneware (ink bottles, ginger beers) is ubiquitous and often maker-stamped.

Record fabric colour, glaze texture, and any moulded or stamped element. Bellarmines were also used as 'witch bottles' — buried filled with pins and charms — so an intact buried example deserves excavation care and its contents recorded, not tipped out.

From the guide library inside Collectors Catalogues, a free app for cataloguing antiques and finds with honest, museum-grade records.

More on pottery

Identifying pottery and ceramics — Fabric, surface, and how it was formed.

Identifying terracotta figurines — Mould lines and vent holes.

Identifying amphorae and transport pottery — Shape equals cargo.

Identifying tiles and brick — Fabric, stamp, and format.

Identifying Roman samian ware — Glossy red tableware with moulded scenes and potters' stamps.

Identifying Roman coarse wares — The kitchen pottery of the empire — greywares, mortaria, and flagons.

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