IT TOOK two dives for Oxford Sub-aqua Club member Jim Weller to bring a 16th century ceramic jug up to the surface on July 11, 1975 – but it wasn't because the dive was difficult.
When Mr Weller first found the jug lying on mud 15 feet below the surface of of the backwater at Donnington Bridge, he threw it back thinking it was made at a child's pottery class.
It was only that night, reading a book on bottle collecting, that he realised the jug was valuable.
It took another trip with Donald Remnant and Colin Hodgkins to bring the jug back to land.
The pottery jug is known as Bellarmine jug. On its neck is the imprint of a man's face which represents Cardinal Bellarmine, an unpopular Italian priest who opposed the Dutch Reformed Church.
When beer or wine in the jug was drink, it was the custom to smash the pottery to insult the cardinal – but the Oxford find has only the handle missing.
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