Well! Indeed! In polite society, we don't talk about such matters!
 
In fact, in response to the query from Mary Ellin D'Agostino, I suspect the
lack of literature may in fact be a result of such an attitude: "One simply
doesn't talk about ..."
 
The literature of the chamber pot is scarce, in spite of the fact that they
are ubiquitous, at least in these parts. We found two or three on a very
poor site that had no privy. I wouldn't know where to start, since all the
reports seem to contain a few specimens, but of course one doesn't talk
about such matters, does one? They are mentioned, and then the subject is
quickly turned to more genteel pots.
 
There is a good overview of the chamberpot in a publication called "Some
domestic vessels of southern Britain: a social and technical analysis," by
P. Amis, which was issue 2 of the "Journal of Ceramic History," general
editor A. R. Mountford, FMA, published by George Street Press, Stafford,
UK, 1968.
 
This is a very useful book with background, trivia, circumolcutions, and
more than 50 dated specimens. Urinals, by the way, were called "Jordans,"
apparently after the river of the same name.
 
A glass urinal also appears on the coat-of-arms of the Urinall family, but
I can't recall where I picked up that particular piece of trivia, I do
recall that there are billyuns of Dutch genre paintings with chamber pots
and urinals. I believe Plimoth Plantation uncovered an uncommonly large
number of urinals in a medical context.
 
The lack of privies on early sites has been a puzzle to me. Has anyone
figured out where the poor people did their business? In these parts,
privies do not appear with any consistency until well into the eighteenth
century, if then. A survey in Mississippi discovered a sizable number of
farmsteads with no privies into the twentieth century. It would seem, to
our city-bred eyes, that a privy would be an essential appendage to the
household, but apparently it wasn't.
 
While I realize that one simply doesn't discuss such matters, I believe the
time has come for us to exchange observations on the subject of chamberpots
and privies. Shall we start a thread?
 
All about Iceland:       http://www.dmv.com/~iceland------------
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_________
|        \               BABY GETS 19 MILES PER U. S. GALLON!
|  BABY   \_===__
|  ___        ___|       Always remember to pillage
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___\_/________\_/_____                   ---- Ned the Horrible
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