Re: James Murphy's comments about chamberpots from the Bromley Pottery in Covington.  He is right; Bob Genheimer found some wonderful yelloware examples at that pottery.  I also have recovered a rim sherd from a redware chamberpot in a residential site in Nelson County outside Bardstown, Ky.  This pot may have been made by a potter named Philip Anthony who worked in Bardstown from 1800 to 1815 when he removed to Tennessee.  I have found it rather odd that I haven't found many chamberpot fragments in the redware collections I have examined, either in a residential context or at the pottery production sites themselves.  Nor are they commonly mentioned in the Kentucky probate inventories I have reviewed over the years.  I did find evidence of slop jars and chamberpots at the Hummons house site in Kinkeadtown (Lexington, Ky.) dating from about 1869 to the early  20th century.  They also always had a privy out back.  Maybe they reserved chamberpot use for those cold wintry days???
Nancy O'Malley
Department of Anthropology
211 Lafferty Hall
University of Kentucky
Lexington, Ky.  40506
606-257-8208