Extremely Rare Glazed Redware Bellarmine Pitcher, probably Frechen, Germany, 16th or 17th century, highly-ovoid pitcher with applied handle and tall narrow collar accented with tooled banding, the front decorated with a handle-modeled and applied face of a bearded man. Face includes depressed eyes and mouth and incised detail to mustache and beard. Surface covered in a reddish-brown lead-and-manganese glaze. The fact that this Bellarmine pitcher is composed of redware, and not the typical salt-glazed stoneware, makes it exceptionally rare and desirable. The use of a hand-modeled face, as opposed to the more-common molded Bartman, is also unusual. An important example of European utilitarian pottery. Provenance: Salvaged from a sunken ship. Heavy chipping to base. Tiny to small-sized chips to spout and rim, with some painted darkening to a few of the rim chips. A 3/4" shallow glaze flake to body. Other minor wear to body. Some calcium deposits from its time underwater. H 6 1/4".