I was running errands today, enjoying the 1,675% humidity courtesy of the light rain shower this morning. It’s Wednesday, which means local thrift stores have pulled all their hauls from the weekend for sale. Usually I can find something fun like a pretty glass or tea cup. Those items are pretty easy to recognize. But sometimes I am flabbergasted at how some stuff gets identified.
I was perusing a beautiful dry sink (identified as a “table with drawer”) that was way out of my price range when my eyes alighted on the item inside the bottom shelf.
Pretty, no? And I bet most of you can tell it is a chamber pot. To be precise, an antique Staffordshire porcelain chamber pot in almost perfect condition. No chips, no cracks, and the gilt is almost like new with very few exceptions.
I have a thing for orchids* and I loved the design. You can’t really tell, but the design is outlined in brown and filled in with gold. It hardly had any scratches inside. It was immaculate!
I took it to the front desk to check out and the lady running the register remarked on it. Hilarity ensued.
Cashier: Oh, so happy someone is taking this bowl home. It’s so pretty.
Me: Bowl?
Cashier: Yes, the owner called it a fruit and salad bowl.
Me: A salad bowl??
Cashier: Yes….why?
Me: This is a chamber pot.
Cashier: ………….
Me: ………….
*both of us burst out laughing*
So you see, it’s always a question of angles. One person saw the item in a different way, for a different use. And interpretation, like beauty, is always in the eye of the beholder.
I just hope the previous owner never served food in it. To anyone 😀
*I have a thing for most flowers, really, but orchids remind me of home.
May 17th, 2017 at 3:51 PM
I’m working too hard to come up with a crap salad joke. But at least you will never be too poor to have a pot to piss in.
May 17th, 2017 at 4:14 PM
WINNAH!!!!!!!!!!!
May 17th, 2017 at 4:14 PM
The outdoor luncheon scene from Drowning Mona should suffice.
May 17th, 2017 at 6:03 PM
HA!!!!!!!!!!!
May 17th, 2017 at 4:30 PM
What’s a chamber pot?
May 17th, 2017 at 6:02 PM
A pot to….tinkle in 😉
May 18th, 2017 at 8:12 AM
Oh. I never had one of those or the window to throw it out of.
May 18th, 2017 at 9:43 AM
HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
May 17th, 2017 at 7:15 PM
Nice catch! I am positive 99% of modern Americans would not know what a chamber pot is/was. Even hospitals have in room johns now but 60 years ago in a land far, far away I remember using them in hospital and my grandmother had one under the bed for nightly emergencies. Not as fancy, pressed glazed steel was more the norm.
May 17th, 2017 at 9:53 PM
My grandmother had one made from enameled steel. I used it for my doll’s bathtub 😀
May 17th, 2017 at 8:09 PM
Not a soup bowl? Why put a handle on it like that?
Is this something wimmen dreamed up?
May 17th, 2017 at 9:57 PM
Sure, I will serve you soup in it next time you visit me!
May 18th, 2017 at 5:47 PM
OMG! Not Pea Green Soup.
May 19th, 2017 at 10:05 AM
*spit take*
May 19th, 2017 at 10:34 AM
It’s a thundermug!
May 19th, 2017 at 11:02 AM
That’s a lot of coffee 😀
May 19th, 2017 at 2:37 PM
Bet the fruit salad had a distinct flavor.
(trying *very* hard not to make a tie-in joke to “tossed salad” here…)
May 19th, 2017 at 6:31 PM
Um, thanks for that! 😀