It wasn’t Halloween yet but the two vintage-looking chairs I had just approached at the auction house were certainly in disguise. They had been placed front and center in a room full of dark-wood antique furniture, and their pastel colors stood out like a bright light.
I suspected what they were as soon as I stumbled upon them. I had written blog posts before about potty chairs and toilets, and that’s what I figured they were. These were different, though, with their antique designs and bright colors.
Old toilets don’t usually stop me in my stride as I preview items at auction houses, but I had been accosted by so many in such a short time that these gave me pause. I began to wonder if families were tiring of them and beginning to toss them. About two weeks ago, I came across two boxy toilets among a grouping of vintage bathroom items.
A year or so ago, an antique porcelain toilet bowl with a fancy design and lots of rust stains was up for sale at another auction house. But no one bidded on the bowl, which likely could have been resold for up to $2,000 – at least according to what I found on the web.
These two most recent potties at auction could easily have been what they were pretending to be: just two Louis XV style chairs that could fit inconspicuously in a room or on an enclosed porch.
They looked to be in just-cleaned condition, so I lifted the seat of the one closest to me, a soft blue chair with gold accents and flowers, and custom feet. Just as I expected, it opened to reveal a round opening wide enough to hold a porcelain bowl. There was another small thumb hole for raising the second cover but I wasn’t about to touch that.
The other one was a fully caned chair in a soft pink color with gold accents and the same style of feet.
I assumed they were reproductions and not the real thing. So, I went looking for others like them on the web and found only one. It was described as a “Louis XV provincial style” potty chair and sold for $150 at an auction in Houston, TX, in 2006. The chair was similar in style to the pink one but was in a natural color.
I wasn’t around when the toilet/potty chairs sold at auction – if they sold at all – so I’m not sure what some lucky buyer paid for them. My question, though, is always the same:
How do you use them?
I suppose that these toilets would make great conversation pieces somewhere in the house. In the bathroom, no doubt. How could you put them anywhere else knowing how they may have been used?
