Name/Title
Chamber PotContext
Sitting on the carpeted floor of the Neill-Cochran House Museum Master Bedroom is a blue and white porcelain pot. Why is a pot on the floor you might ask? Well this pot does not belong in the kitchen or dining room. It is a chamber pot, a kind of portable toilet used in the days before indoor plumbing.
The chamber pot consists of a porcelain pot with a handle on the side and a porcelain lid with a small handle on top. The pot and lid are made of blue and white porcelain decorated with prints of wheat and butterflies. The rim of the pot and rim of the lid, as well as the lid handle, are embellished with a repeating "summertime" pattern in blue.
This chamber pot was manufactured in the 1880s by T. & R. Boote, Ltd. of Burslem, England. T. & R. Boote made earthenware from 1848 to 1962, and their trademark can be found on the underside of the pot.
The pot was given to the Neill-Cochran House Museum by an unknown donor. You can find it, and all of our essential artifacts and the NCHM, Wed-Sun, 11-4pm.
Source: The British Museum