u/My_Shore_Bits

Found this little chap face down in the mud on a Friday night.

He's my first, very rare, complete Witches Jug / Bartmann face and a beauty at that!

The current favoured suggestion from multiple mudlarks is that it belongs to a Bellarmine jug that was made by an apprentice working in this country? Not all witches jars are imported...

Therefore this discounts the Wooltus-Killigrew link on the basis of their expertise?

The quote on the attached image is lifted from a report about an archaeological dig at the old Fulham Pottery and that sort of high jinks might also mean they would make silly faces like this?

Apparently some of reports from the site have a lot of pictures of the finds? Maybe there'll be a match in the book?

The research journey is going to be thoroughly enjoyable on this one and I wonder what shape the output will take?

The piece has been reported to https://www.bartmanngoesglobal.org/

Managed to make it down to the shore for a quick half an hour this morning - timed just as the first Uber boat went past shortly before low tide.

After a few minutes, I found the most unfriendliest face from a Bartmann jug lying face down in the mud!

After a dry spell of 4 YEARS, I found a Bartmann beard a couple of weeks ago and now these eyes all in the same spot. Unfortunately they aren’t a match.

Isn’t mudlarking surprising sometimes?

A selection of finds from a visit to the Thames foreshore in May 2026.

I already have two upper parts of Bartmann faces, but this is my first beard! Cleaning the glass bead also revealed the presence of the blue pigment, so I left the majority inside the bead. Is that of any interest to anyone or can I use it to paint a picture? Could the ball have also been used as a projectile at some point - hence that splodge of metal?

Ps. The latest mudlarking film Reclaimed Histories: Letterpress is available to watch at www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Xjnw85Tzfc

#mudlarking #london #history