Britain's biggest collection of antique LOOS is up for sale for £300,000 - including a potty with Hitler's face on the bottom.
The never-before-seen Thomas Crapper Collection belongs to Simon Kirby who has spent the last 40 years amassing the hoard featuring hundreds of rare toilets.
They include ornate WC pans, polished wooden loos seats, a toilet from Harrods and thunderboxes dating back between the 1830s-1960s.
The 57-year-old is now reluctantly parting with his quirky collection of 1,200 items, which is up for sale to those feeling flush for £300,000.
Simon began collecting the pieces gradually as a personal project when he was managing director of Thomas Crapper & Co.
The never-before-seen Thomas Crapper Collection belongs to Simon Kirby who has spent the last 40 years amassing the hoard featuring hundreds of rare toilets.
They include ornate WC pans, polished wooden loos seats, a toilet from Harrods and thunderboxes dating back between the 1830s-1960s.
The 57-year-old is now reluctantly parting with his quirky collection of 1,200 items, which is up for sale to those feeling flush for £300,000.
Simon began collecting the pieces gradually as a personal project when he was managing director of Thomas Crapper & Co.
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00We are here in South Warwickshire on an old 18th century country estate to come and see
00:06an extraordinary private museum which has never been open to the public.
00:14The Thomas Crapper Museum is being sold so this is a rare chance to explore its entirety
00:19as it's uncertain whether it can remain together or will be broken up.
00:25Solely in charge of the collection is Simon Kirby, the former owner and managing director
00:29of Thomas Crapper & Company and we're here to soak up some of his expertise with a tour
00:34of the collection.
00:35So what are these then?
00:38These are, there's no reason why you should know, these are stall urinals.
00:42Oh well, usually when I see one I run the other direction because I realise I'm in the
00:46wrong place.
00:47Quite so.
00:49What's particularly rare about these two is, can you see the little B?
00:54Yes, yeah.
00:55It's in a transfer on both of them.
00:59The Victorians realised that if they gave them something to aim at then the janitor
01:04would have less clearing up to do.
01:06Okay, right.
01:07They'd just be, you know, neater, if you know what I mean.
01:08Well this is something pretty to look at at least.
01:10Is there anything else behind that?
01:12Yes.
01:13Why did they choose a B?
01:14They chose a B because, well it's a very rare sanitary wear joke in that they knew that
01:20most of the gentlemen using these things would have been educated in Latin and Latin for
01:25B is apis.
01:28Okay, so what started your interest in antique bathroomalia?
01:31Well I think it was probably my mother who was a book dealer and I was a strange little
01:36child who liked old things and she gave me a copy of Lucinda Lambton's book, Temples
01:41of Convenience, when I was 11 years of age and this book is full of colour photographs
01:48of decorated Victorian lavatories and washbasins.
01:51So that might have started me off and certainly only a few years later when I was 17 I was
01:57dealing in architectural salvage and specialised in antique bathrooms and before long that's
02:02all we were doing is salvaging antique loos and basins and baths, restoring them and selling
02:08them to people who wanted period bathrooms.
02:11And I believe some of the pieces photographed in Lucinda's book are actually part of your
02:15collection now.
02:16As a child do you think that forms a bit of a wish list for the future?
02:20Well I've never actually thought of that before.
02:23Maybe you're right.
02:25Well there's at least one item in there that I definitely always wanted and that's a potty
02:30with Hitler's face in the bottom of it.
02:32It's a bit of fun like this, raised morale.
02:34It's a wonderful thing, it's the only one I've ever seen apart from the one that featured
02:40in Lucinda Lambton's book, Temples of Convenience.
02:44From unusual rare items to remarkably ornate WC pans and huge old fireclay baths, it is
02:50easy to neglect the pristine quality of Simon's collection as much of the pieces assembled
02:55over the last four decades could be plumbed in today ready for use.