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Its 1789 and imagine you are eating in the mansion house, in the magnificent stateroom with its luxurious gold and green decoration. At the end of the meal gentlemen would carry on drinking and go to the toilet. That's when chamber pots would be used. But silver ones, they would be reserved for the high-ranking guests. In 1789 this would have been the Prince of Wales, later Prince Regent and later George IV.

The chamber pot itself started life as a gift in a will of £10 by Marmaduke Rawdon in 1668. The commission was given to Marmaduke Best, a noted silversmith of York. In 1672 the pot was handed over to the City and has stayed with the city ever since. Why its place in history? Well, this is the oldest surviving chamber pot in the country and is indicative of personal hygiene and habits back in the past. Imagine the stories the chamber pot could tell!