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A stoneware or glass bottle filled with pins, hair and urine, buried as a counter-charm.
Also known as: Bellarmine bottle, Greybeard jug, Counter-charm bottle
A sealed bottle packed with bent pins, nail clippings, hair and urine, buried beneath a hearth or threshold. Not a charm against misfortune in general but a counter-charm aimed at an identified witch — one of the few magical practices whose intent contemporary sources actually explain.
A bottle — commonly a bearded stoneware Bellarmine jug — filled with bent pins, nails, hair, nail parings and urine, sealed and buried beneath a hearth, threshold or floor.
England and colonial North America · Roughly 16th–19th century
A counter-charm rather than a general protection: contemporary accounts describe it as directed at a specific person believed to have bewitched the household, intended to turn the affliction back on them.
Unusually among these practices, contemporary written explanations survive, which is why the intent can be stated rather than inferred.
Found regularly during building work in England, and reported often enough that Historic England and county archaeological services have guidance on recording them in situ.
England
A round-bellied stoneware bottle with a narrow neck, often bearing a moulded bearded face on the shoulder below the rim.