Some of the earliest chamber pots found by archaeologists were used by the ancient Greeks
and portable toilets like these are still used all over the world today.
These particular pots date from the 19th century
and their primary objective of course was to collect urine and faeces.
Some popular British slang terms for the chamber pot included, 'The Jerry'
'The Jordan' – possibly a reference to the River Jordan;
'Oliver’s skull' – maybe a reference to Oliver Cromwell,
and 'The Looking Glass'.
This was because when a doctor wanted to see what was wrong with you
they would often inspect the contents of your chamber pot to make that diagnosis.
In a time before comfortable indoor flushable latrines,
if you needed the loo in the middle of the night
you'd have to make the perilous journey down to the cesspit at the bottom of your garden.
However, a chamber pot like this could be filled in the relative warmth of your own bedroom.
The contents of your chamber pot could then in the morning be emptied into your own cesspit
or into the town centre's communal cesspit.
Or alternatively, you could just chuck it out the window into the open drain in the street.
There's some thought that the word “loo” comes from the French, “gardez l’eau”
which translates roughly as, “Watch out for the water”.
Which is of course what you're going to shout
when you're throwing your chamber pot contents out of the window,
for the benefit of those below.
Watch out for the water! Gardez l'eau!
Chamber pots weren't only kept in bedrooms, but in drawing rooms.
For example, if you were a middle-class gentleman and you were having a party,
the brandy is flowing and you would retire to the corner of a room
where you would have something like this chamber pot in a cupboard.
You'd unlock, do your business and then return to the party.
Carriage pots as well were a very real thing.
So when you are reading your next Jane Austen or Dickensian novel
and there's a long journey in a carriage,
the protagonists are going to some remote part of the country
– you know, they've got to go at some point. So they'd go in a carriage pot.
The contents of which would be emptied onto the side of the road when the next stop happened.
This pot is highly decorated and would probably have been given as a wedding present.
It has a personalised poem on the side of the pot, which reads:
“Marriage. This pot is a present sent, some mirth to make is only meant,
we hope the same you’ll not refuse, but keep it safe and often use.
When in it you want to piss, remember those who gave you this.”
Inside the pot is a small brown ceramic frog,
which I'm assuming is to help you aim.
Finally, in the bottom of the pot there's a painting of a young man with very impressive sideburns,
raising his arms and his eyebrows in horror
at what's about to happen to him.
These kinds of caricatures were a canny way for potters to make a bit more money.
If they put a very contentious, public persona in the bottom of a chamber pot,
they would fly off the shelves.
So if they put a hated or controversial figure
– let's say a politician or a polemic preacher – in the bottom of the pot,
then they were a lot more likely to sell.
The pungent contents of these pots could actually be quite useful in times of war.
During the Napoleonic and English Civil Wars,
government officials would go door-to-door
harvesting the contents of people's chamber pots.
This was because urine could be refined to make saltpetre
– an essential ingredient in making gunpowder.
This rather elegant-looking vessel, even though it looks a bit like a gravy boat,
is in fact another chamber pot.
This one was designed especially for women and is called a 'bourdaloue'.
I'll never forget the name – it sounds a bit like “port-a-loo”, which is exactly what this is.
It’s supposedly named after a French Jesuit preacher called Louis Bourdaloue
whose sermons were so riveting and epically long
that you'd be dying to go by the end if it.
This handy receptacle could be slipped discreetly under a lady’s skirt
and then emptied in the churchyard afterwards.
Objects like these are often mis-sold as punch bowls or gravy boats,
so if you find one at your local antiques dealer or at the car boot fair,
check carefully before you wheel it out at your next dinner party.