Traditional Chamber Pots Are Being Sold As “Chinese Antique Fruit Bowl” Online & We’re Losing Our Minds
Just because things are old doesn’t make them antiques.
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Many of us have grown up, or at least seen, the family chamber pot.
However, someone has put the common chamber pot up for sale… as a “traditional Chinese antique fruit basket”!
The item, found on the US e-commerce website Amazon, was listed for sale at $31.99 (around RM130). On the listing, the item is described as a “limited production of the 60s” and “can be used as a basket or a stand-alone desktop decoration”.
The listing also shows images of all the “potential uses” of the chamber pot, such as a holder for french bread or an ice bucket for alcohol!
The listing also notes that it “can be used as a unique gift for your friends who like to collect old products”, noting that the giftee will be “very surprised”.
Very surprised indeed, to receive a chamber pot as a gift!
But what is it, exactly?
The chamber pot is usually used by our older relatives may insist on it for a bit of a nighttime relief, or to teach young kids how to use the toilet properly, or even historically used as a spittoon for spitting out tobacco.
It was extremely common in Asia in the 1980s and 1990s, and is often decorated with pairs of Mandarin ducks or ‘double happiness’ because a brand new one would be gifted to a married couple as a gift as they began their new lives together.
So even if you might find it quite pretty, some “antiques” aren’t meant to be decorative!
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Anne is an advocate of sustainable living and the circular economy, and has managed to mum-nag the team into using reusable containers to tapau food. She is also a proud parent of 4 cats and 1 rabbit.