The Chamber Pot: An Object Full of Contradictions

friendsofdalnavert.ca ^ | They don't list it as I can find | Sean Hetherington

[kawhill]

To properly understand an object, it is necessary not only to understand its function but also to understand the web of values, associations, and historical contexts that surround the object. If we are to put the chamber pot in its proper place in Victorian society, it is necessary to understand the chamber pot’s history and the values that emerge from that history.

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TOPICS: History; Reference
KEYWORDS: 14march2023; artifacts; chamber; chamberpot; indoorouthouse; object; pot; seanhetherington; thundermugs; victorianera; yourmom

[mewzilla]

We have a Furnival & Sons chamber pot that is a thing of beauty.

We have repurposed it, however.

[trebb]

Wow - talk about overthinking the subject.
But it did remind me of an old joke: What do you call the sheet draped over a 4-poster bed? Canopy? No - that’s under the bed.🥸

[heylady]

I was born in 1948 and lived on a dairy farm in Rhode Island. The first six years of my life we had no indoor plumbing. There was an outhouse next to our house and fortunately my sister and I had a “potty chair”. My Mother’s family farm never had indoor plumbing on their farm. They were rich and had two out houses and one was a two-seater. My Mother would tell stories about it being so cold in the house that the chamber pots under the bed would be frozen when they woke up in the morning. When my Grandmother passed away in the early 1960’s they sold the property, still without indoor plumbing.

[Big Red Badger]

Love This Post!
.
“What Would Jesus Do?”
As opposed to;
“What Can We Do With our modern stuff?”

[Farmerbob]

In ‘98 I bought a 1970 country house in N. Alabama. It had running water but the bathroom was only put in 4 years prior by the second owner. It still had an outhouse; no pit, just several 5 gal buckets that would be swapped out. When the elderly next-door neighbor passed I bought his frame house. It too had water but no toilet/bath. I didn’t find an outhouse on his property.

[Bigg Red]

Great memories.😊

[Elsie]

I’m wearing a shirt tonight that has your tagline on it!

In a similar vein, “After folks find out that they HAVE been fooled, it’s very hard for them to admit it.”

[Elsie]

Ahhh...

the good ol’ days!

[Sirius Lee]

Before Americans were inside the house pooping into flush toilets, the Euros were pooping from inside the castles down the walls.

Like modern dentistry, electricity, and refrigeration, I see flush toilets and septic systems as a huge leap forward in human progress.

I do not care to ever see or smell brown streaks running down the sides of my neighbors homes.