Featured For fun: I didn't know that... Curved Pitchers

Just for fun and because it may have come up for discussion, or will, a what-is-it-used-for style of vintage pitcher.

It's too big to be a creamer and an odd shape for a milk jug/pitcher. I've seen them here and there, not often though, and always wondered what they were used for.

Here's what and it was a surprise to me. Full story about them here:
Fashionable Ladies' Necessities in Days Gone By



and trust that Francois Boucher knew what they were too:

 

and they say I post naughty pictures...........

 

Another "I learned something new today".

 

Brings back memories of lying in a hospital bed with a broken hip (me, not the bed).

 

I think you'll find it often called a bourdalou. Legend has it that a long winded priest named Bourdaloue went on for so long that ladies brought pots to use during the sermon. They are often lavishly decorated.

 

I learned something new today too.
I often use the expression piss poor.

 

Wow! Now I have to find one so I’ll have a pot to p in. Ty for the

 

Slightly more recent - for the truly broke they "didn't have a pot to piss in or the window to throw it out of".

 

We have a bordeloue and it is sitting on a book of sermons by Bordeloue, after whom it is named.

 

Some people, loving antiques on their reception table, unaware of the original use of them call them gravy boats and... use them as such

 

kyra

 

I wonder what they'd do if the knew the sort of "sauce" that originally went into them!

 

It is the "secret" sauce.

 

I got this one at a thrift store:


Don't know who decorated it, or why, but guessing they didn't know what it was.

Sold easily on eBay despite several hairline cracks.

 

Hmmm, I've heard of a gilded pisspot, but not a beribboned one!

 

It comes to mind that even elegant ladies in times gone by were not necessarily schooled in reading or writing. Directional signs were therefore often pictorial.

We still have them as easy to understand no matter what language or lack of reading skills.

A possible reason why F. Boucher painted a lady using a bordelou. It could have been a sign for where to go in the palace when need arose:

 

I went into a fast food restaurant to use the ladies room not too long ago when running to sales.
The ladies room had the one where the gal is standing with her legs crossed on the door. LOL