excluding an element

I am trying to select (and then clone) an entire DOM structure excluding one div.

The DOM is stored in a variable like this:

var original = $(this).closest("table.mainContainer");

The I try to exclude the div in the clone like this
$(original).find(":not(div.container)").clone();

But the div is shows in the clone. Any ideas on what I'm doing wrong?

Thanks in advance for your help.