Antique & Historic Toilets

Brands, Manufacturers, Types & Sources

Chamber Pots, Close Stools, Commodes & Garderobes

Chamber pots (dating from Roman times and Garderobes (5th to 15th century toilets that simply dumped waste to the outdoors) and privies and outhouses, toilet designs that date to the 1500s or earlier are omitted from this review of modern toilets.

See OUTHOUSES & LATRINES for examples of privies and outhouses, toilet designs that date to the 1500s or earlier

This discussion has been promoted to its own page:

ANTIQUE CHAMBER POTS & CLOSE STOOLS

In the eighteenth century, indoor toilet needs were met in several ways.

The two basic forms seem to have been the chamber pot, made from either ceramic or metal, and used by itself, or the close stool, a piece of furniture designed to hold a chamber pot or pan. Eighteenth-century probate inventories are an excellent source for learning about these indelicate objects.

Question: Can you tell me anything about this wooden box type commode - toilet?

2019/06/20 Michael Myers said:

I'm looking for anything about this toilet , mmyers0013@gmail.com

Reply: "Close Stool" wooden apparatus for using a chamber pot

Michael,

Your photo shows a wooden commode. If it's original and not a reproduction, it's probably from the 19th century.

See your question and a detailed reply now found

at ANTIQUE CHAMBER POTS & CLOSE STOOLS

Other reading reading suggestions are given just below.

1880s Early Flush Toilets: Thomas Crapper

By the 1880's, in London Thomas Crapper & Co's sanitary specialties included the elastic valve water closet illustratedhere, and the toilet cistern "water waste preventer" siphon toilet flush assembly design shown at the top of this page and again below.

As you can see from our photo of an early toilet advertisement by Thomas Crapper & Cos. (from a wallpaper reproduction), the siphon flush valve is not a new idea, and has long been sold as a method of preventing water wastage and running toilets.

The elastic valve closet advertisement shown above does not include the cistern or water reservoir tank.

Mounting the cistern high on the wall gave additional water pressure that helped flush the toilet bowl clean.

Early flush toilets like the toilet shown in our photo (abovee, Locust Grove, - Samuel Morse Estate, Poughkeepsie, NY)

and like this 1890 model [Image] used a high wall-mounted reservoir tank, typically wooden, to provide adequate pressure and flow rate to clean and empty the toilet bowl.

The flush valve for the wooden wall-mounted reservoir tank for this toilet was operated by pulling a chain that operated the mechanism.

Pulling the chain means flushing the toilet.

Thomas Crapper & Co. (London) called their scary-looking toilet contraption an "Elastic Valve Closet" [Image]

The photo below of a 1913 toilet (or part of it) is an early example of this design.

By 1890 the elastic valve closet had been sophisticated and simplified in appearance to appear with a toilet tank or cistern mounted still higher on the building wall for a more-powerful and so more-effective toilet flush operation.

1930s Case Toilets

Case & Son Manufacturing is credited with being the first to manufacture a single or one-piece toilet that combined the water reservoir or cistern with the toilet bowl. Shown above is the Case Model A toilet produced in the early 1930s.

Case also produced one-piece wall-hung toilets like the Case 3000 shown below.

See more about wall-hung toilets at BACK FLUSH & WALL MOUNT TOILETS

• CASE BRAND TOILETS [PDF] W.A. Case & Son Manufacturing, produced in Buffalo, New York from 1853 up to 1960s when the company was purchased by Briggs Manufacturing. Case toilet image and PDF courtesy of https://www.plumbingsupply.com/casetoilets.html who offer repair parts for case toilets.

Case toilet part sources:

• This Old Toilet Co., - replacement parts for Case toilets (and other brands) https://thisoldtoilet.com/collections/case/products/toilet-case-3000-one-piece-wall-hung
• PlumbingSupply.com - replacement parts for Case and other brands, https://www.plumbingsupply.com

History of the Owen Iron Works & the Eureka cast iron toilet

Photos of a Eureka cast-iron toilet, courtesy of InspectApedia.com reader D. Stewart - 2022/10/11

Owen Iron Works, Gadsen, Alabama, produced the Eureka cast iron toilet and many other cast iron products such as water meter box covers and possibly manhole covers.

Our research suggests that the Owen iron works in Alabama is traced at least back to the U.S. Civil War era when Thomas Hennington Owen built a forge on Roupes Creek. (Story of Coal & Iron in Alabama, 1910 p. 157)

According to a post by Evan Owen, a descendent of Evan Joseph Owen, owner of the Eureka / Owen Iron Works,

The Owen name and the Foundry Industry go back to Shelby Iron Works when families from Wales (Great Britain) immigrated as there was a shortage of knowledgeable operators in the south.

- retrieved 2022/10/11, original source: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1596864743791308/search/?q=owen%20iron%20works

• DHS, EUREKA IRON WORKS [PDF] Encyclopedia of Detroit, - retrieved 2022/10/11, original source: https://detroithistorical.org/learn/encyclopedia-of-detroit/eureka-iron-works
  
  Excerpt:
  An influential entity in American iron and steel production, the Eureka Iron Works operated for nearly 40 years. In 1853, Philip Thurber spent a summer vacationing in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula near Marquette.
  
  He was enthralled by the recent discovery of iron ore deposits in Northern Michigan. After testing a sample of the ore, Thurber returned to Detroit and reported the superior quality to a few potential capitalists.
  
  Among these men was Captain Eber Brock Ward, who would function as financial and organizational backbone of this venture. On October 15, 1853 the Eureka Iron Company was officially organized.
  
  The next year, following an inspection of potential locations for the Eureka Iron Works, a decision was made to pay $44,000 for a 2,200-acre plot known as “the Wyandotte,” the summer estate of Major John Biddle. On Dec. 12, 1854 the village of Wyandotte was established, part of present-day Wyandotte, Michigan.
  
  With two miles on the waterfront, the location allowed for direct access to the Detroit River and was in close proximity to other natural resources including timber and limestone.
  
  Ward signed a contract with Captain William Bolton to transport the stone needed to construct the Eureka Iron Factory, consisting of two furnaces. The Wyandotte Rolling Mill Company was established in 1855 to make use of the iron produced by Eureka’s furnaces, the stockholders for the two companies being chiefly the same.

• The STORY of COAL & IRON in ALABAMA - 1910 [PDF excerpt] Library of Congress (full document found in Citations & References at page bottom)
  
  Excerpt: On the same creek (Marion AL) precisely one mile south of Tannehill, a forge was put up by Thomas Hennington Owen and Thomas Lightfoot Williams.
  
  "Over and over again, so Rose Owen tells me, they had to get their ore in the morning, and besides making the iron for the government, they had to make nails and horseshoes, shoe all their mules, and get the teams off to the railroad at Montevallo, before night.
  
  Mr. Williams also ran a big tan yard at Tannehill, and made saddles and harness for the Confederacy. The forge, being out of the way, escaped the enemy's eye, but was destroyed in the June freshet of 1866.
  
  Mr. Owen was not an iron worker himself, but a planter and merchant of Jefferson County, and served in the latter eighteen-seventies as county commissioner. He employed an expert iron worker from Tennessee, Thomas C. Bratton, to build and operate the forge.
  
  All during the war Tannehill furnace was operated, making cannon balls, gun barrels, ordnance, all the munitions of war, in addition to pots, pans, and skillets, for use of the Confederate army.
  
  When Croxton's detatchment came through Roupes Valley they happened upon Tannehill at the very moment when the cupola was being tapped and they made short work of it.
  
  They demolished one furnace entirely, blew up the trestle, tore up the tramway, burned the foundry and cast houses, and passed on to the settlement beyond, which they razed to the ground.
  
  This was the death blow. The Tannehill furnaces were put out of blast for good and all; the whole country around was abandoned and the forest left to its own.
  
  ... The ruins of the furnace like some Welsh medieval tower stand forlorn, yet will they stand for centuries to come as memorial to the early iron-masters of Alabama, as the mute historian of the first generation of the iron industry in this State.
  - Op. Cit. p. 158-159. - James M. Gillespy of Birmingham.

J.A. Vogel Flush Toilet History

Above and below: photos of this J.A. Vogel flush toilet, provided by Mike, an InspectApedia.com reader and posted originally

at TOILET TYPES, CONTROLS, PARTS, look remarkably like the pre-1900 "Elastic Valve Toilet" described in our sketch at the start of this article.

Here is more description from Mike. Readers who know more about this toilet are welcome to CONTACT us or to contact Mike shadycreekboers@aol.com

I cannot find any name brand or digits other than the knob/valve has Rockford on it. The and here in central Texas found it in a barn that was said to be near 125 years old. It was stored in the barn.

He had just bought the place. With the porcelain being just on top and inside, nothing ornate outside, I assumed it went into something similar to the hall tree wash basin.

Hopefully not in a hall but maybe a bathroom or closet, since it only rinses when seat it's pressed, did it run water while using it or maybe had a solid lid that once you done your business, close lid and press to flush?

Moderator comment:

Your toilet or one quite similar is described in

• Vogel, Joseph A. FLUSHING APPARATUS FOR WATER-CLOSETS U.S. Patent 801,754 [PDF] issued October 10, 1905.

As you later noted, JA Vogel was a U.S. company in Wilmington, Delaware.

This is how we think this toilet worked: sitting on the wooden toilet seat (missing except for a wood fragment on the left side of the bracket in the first photo) bolted to the cast-iron half-round bracket lifted a cam that operated the flush valve that caused water to flush the toilet bowl during or after use.

Vogel's patent descriptions explain how the valve worked on these early flush toilets and also cited a frost-proof design for the toilet drain system.

Excerpting from Vogel's second patent disclosure - 1905.

In a flushing apparatus, the combination of a bowl, a tank, a valve-casing communicating with the bowl and tank, a supply-pipe communicating with the valve-casing and provided with an inlet and drain apertures, a rod extending through said pipe and casing and carrying the inlet and flushing valves, the latter controlling the flow of water between the

SUPPLY-pipe and the tank and between the tank and bowl, said rod being provided with a by-pass for the flow of entering water between the inlet to the pipe and the valve casing, a seat-lid, means operated when the seat-lid is depressed to raise the rod to open the inlet valve and close the flush valve,

and a spring within the valve-casing adapted to force the rod downward to open the flush valve and close the inlet valve and normally maintain said parts in such position. - Joseph A. Vogel

These antique toilet photos show a toilet made of cast iron or of enameled steel with the remains of a flush valve much like that shown in the Elastic Valve Closet sketch on this page.

Subsequent toilet bowl designs have included many experiments & methods to improve toilet bowl cleaning, removal of solid waste without clogging, and to reduce "marking" - fecal stains on the toilet bowl surface that otherwise require a toilet brush and frequent cleaning.

Joseph A. Vogel Toilet History

U.S. patents citing JA Vogel as Inventor or assigned by an inventor to Vogel give an early history of this toilet and its flush mechanism beginning in 1903.

• Pre-Vogel:
• Wellington, Darius, Improved Water Closet, US Patent 233335, issued March 22, 1859, assigned to Charles A. Wellington.
• De-Marest, J., Valve for Water Closets, US Patent 213324, issued 18 March 1879
• Douglas, J&G, Flushing-Tank for Water Closets, US Patent 369842, issued September 13, 1887
• Hughes, S.E., Water Closet, US Patent 481,761, issued 30 August 1892
• Vogel, Joseph A. "Flushing apparatus for water-closets." U.S. Patent 737,796, issued September 1, 1903.
• Vogel, Joseph A. "Flushing apparatus for water-closets." U.S. Patent 801,754, issued October 10, 1905.
• Vogel, Joseph A. "Flushing mechanism." U.S. Patent 1,249,258, issued December 4, 1917.
• Kirby, Howard M. "Flushing mechanism." U.S. Patent 1,253,982, issued January 15, 1918.
• Vogel, Joseph A., and Arthur J. Jennings. "Flushing mechanism." U.S. Patent 1,695,621, issued December 18, 1928.
• Vogel, Joseph A. "Flushing apparatus for water closet systems." U.S. Patent 1,985,119, issued December 18, 1934.
• Vogel, Joseph A. "Vacuum break device for water service systems." U.S. Patent 1,985,120, issued December 18, 1934.
• Barnard, Jr Daniel P. "Flushing apparatus." U.S. Patent 2,116,258, issued May 3, 1938.

Siphon Flush Valve Toilet - Wall Flush Tank Toilets

An alternative to the tank ball and flapper valve toilet flush mechanism used in the U.K. and in toilets in some other locales, toilet siphon flush valves are operated by a button that forces water up from the reservoir cistern (toilet tank) into the siphon that in turn sends water into the toilet bowl to complete the flush.

Siphon flush valve controls on toilets eliminate the problem of running toilets caused by leakage at the tank ball or flapper valve.

Below we illustrate a more contemporary top-front-flush high-mounted cistern type toilet.

This toilet is installed in the restroom of the Brew Moon cafe in Amberley, on highway 1 between Christchurch and Akaroa, New Zealand.

The Brew Moon is a micro-brewery producing their own excellent beers whose sampling will for at least some customers, makes working toilets an important convenience.

Below you can see the operation of the flush control mounted on the upper front center of the Brew Moon toilet's cistern.

Below we illustrate the cistern fill valve in operation and the flush control valve components of this toilet.

The toilet includes a separate overflow drain from the top of the cistern (blue arrow, below).

...

More about the operation of drains and vents on toilets of this type can be read

at LOW COST TOILETS

Triangle T 1940s Wall Cistern Toilet - Water Closet - Loo

Question: what's the brand name of this toilet with a T enclosed in a Triangle?

This toilet is installed in a converted house that was originally an attached garage at a home built in San Jose California in 1941.

Reply: Triangle T on Porcelain marks the identifying brand of this 1940s wall Flush-Tank toilet

Certainly I've seen both new reproductions and antique wooden wall tank flush toilets selling for over $1000. On your unit the hardware, piping, and other parts may need replacement or repair; you'll do best finding a local buyer so as to reduce shipping cost and risk.

I've tried searching for this logo among toilets, bath fixtures, plumbing suppliers, and Google images, without success.

If you find any other identifying marks such as numbers or letters stamped in the cistern that'd be helpful. If you do not object, I'll also find a place to post this to invite help from other readers - our default is to keep you anonymous unless you ask otherwise.

Reader Question: Norris Toilet Parts

We have two of these, installed in 1983. A photo of our Mexican Sand (or Moroccan Sand) one is attached as well as a picture of the black one from your web page. I have been assuming that these are Kohlers, but Kohler says no. There is no K number in the ceramic of the tank.

The only identifiers are the word Norris on one of the tank lids and the number 45. The manufacturing date, however, is quite clear.

The hardware store invoice identifies them only as 503, with no manufacturer.

Since the phrase "Or as our mom did in Boca Raton" was used in the description of the black toilet, I believe somebody at your end has had a distressingly close encounter with this model.

Ours flush very well, but require constant rebuilding of the flush mechanism to fill and/or stop filling reliably.

The fact that I have been using Kohler parts all along might account for these constant problems. Thank you, - L.K. 5/9/12

Reply: A Quick History of Norris Industries & Norris Toilets

The black toilet shown in our photo was installed in a New York home - and was produced by Kohler industries. It does not appear to be the same brand as yours, since the tank on the black toilet in our earlier photo is rectangular, not curved such as the toilet tank shown in your photo (above).

But your message indicates that you saw "Norris" stamped inside one of the toilet lids. Almost certainly that indicates that your toilets were made by Norris Industries.

Norris Toilets, as indicated by the brand you found in the toilet tank lid, were a 5.0 gallon flush toilet (or other volume), builder-grade, low profile toilet design installed often in the 1970's and as late as 1991. Often you can also see the toilet brand on the bowl or base, behind the toilet seat hinge.

Watch for cracks in the porcelain in these units. Also see Norris Thermador (NT) models. Norris toilets may be marked as N, NI, NT, Norris, Norris Industries, or Norris Thermador.

The Norris Toilet Industries factory was located in City of Industry, California where production under the Norris label stopped when the company was bought by Mansfield Industries in 1991.

Mansfield Plumbing Products has been in business since 1929 and continues to operate (as a subsidiary of CORONA, a Colombian multinational ) in Big Prairie Ohio with a second plant in Henderson Texas. You might be able to obtain Norris-compatible parts from

Mansfield Plumbing Products LLC 150 East First Street, Perrysville, OH, 44864 Phone: 1-877-850-3060 Fax: 1-800-984-7802 Website: http://www.mansfieldplumbing.com

or go right to their parts supply contact information at

Vitreous China, Plastic Fittings and Parts. Phone: 1-877-850-3060 Fax: 1-419-938-6234

Other toilet part sources: we used to drive around in a pickup truck on "clean-up day" in our town, watching for people who were tossing out old toilets - collecting toilet lids for our renovation customers, as that's the part most often broken on porcelain toilets.

There are quite a few online vendors of toilet tank lids or other parts, including vendors selling color-matched parts if your toilet is other than a white model.

Just ask for a brochure from the replacement toilet parts vendor and that will get you quite close to the original unit that you have.

See details at TOILET CISTERN / TANK LID REPLACEMENTS

The Corona Corporation was founded as Organizacion Corona in 1881 and is one of the oldest businesses in Colombia. The company, headquartered in Bogota, is a ceramics producer with operations in Colombia ( Cl. 99 #10 - 08, Bogotá, Colombia), Panama, Mexico, the U.S. and China. Corona has been owned by the Echavarria family since 1935.

British Toilets: Shires New Reverso Toilets - U.K. brands

Above, the Shires New Reverso toilet, installed at Brinstone Farm, Herefordshire, U.K. This toilet was produced by Whieldon Sanitary Potteries.

The cistern (toilet tank for yanks and Canadians) is probably newer than the toilet base of this Shires New Reverso.

The toilet pan (toilet base for yanks & Canadians) is ceramic. Whieldon Sanitary Potteries (previously Winkle & Wood Colonial Pottery) who produced the toilet pan were, in the 1930's, located in Mount Pleasant, Staffordshire, England near Stoke-on-Trent.

This Shires Reverso toilet model dates from [about] the 1950's, the pan or base possibly dating from the 1930's. Earlier installations of this Shires toilet placed the cistern higher on the wall and used a pull chain to flush the toilet.

The cistern for this Shires Reverso toilet is plastic.

Above and below we illustrate the brand marking for Shires New Reverso cisterns and toilet pans or bases.

Shires Bathrooms, a british manufacturer of the Shires toilet / toilet cistern models included

• Shires Auto
• Shires Duralite
• Shires Fineline
• Shires Lynx Toilets: 1960-1980 and Lawley Lynx
• Shires Panther
• Shires New Duranite
• Shires Puma
• Shires Reverso
• Shires Ruberwell
• Shires Uni-Lynx

Below: an image of the Whieldon Sanitary Potteries Ltd., Colonial Pottery factory in Staffordshire in the 1930's, excerpted from a larger image, original source:

britainfromabove.org.uk/image/epw042661 Whieldon Sanitary Potteries, once so large that the company had its own railway stop, was acquired by Doulton & Co., in 1937.

Doulton was bought by S. Pearson & Co. in 1971. Thomas Whieldon, was a British potter who is said to have been a mentor to Josiah Wedgwood.

Question: value of an antique Shires Reverso Toilet?

(Aug 23, 2019) Colin harvey said:

Shires reverso. What’s it worth ?

Reply:

Thanks for the Shires Reverso toilet value question, Colin.

I did some searching on Shires Reverso toilets and toilet parts for sale and found that it is rare to see an entire Shires Reverso toilet for sale. I think this is because rather than wishing to install an new "antique" Shires toilet, the principal market is for replacement parts for these loos.

Because the most-common part lost is the toilet cistern or tank lid that is dropped and damaged or broken, there is a market for Shires Reverso cistern lids. Prices ranged from about £29.00 to £50.00 with the most-common cistern lid eBay price of £48.00

A Shires Reverso cistern might sell for £70.00 to £140.00 for a complete Shires Naiad cistern replica.

Frost-Proof & Anti-Freezing Toilets

Question: I.X.L. Pump & Mfg. Co. Water Closet / Toilet Seat history

2019/11/13 Wes said:

The attached picture is of a VERY heavy weighted seat. The rigid iron bracket is affixed in such a way that the seat would have to be pulled down to sit on. Then, it would raise from the counterweight when you got up. Any ideas as to how old, special usage etc? (says 1XL PHILA 12 on the iron) THANKS!!

Reply:

How interesting; This invention - self-lifting or counter-weighted toilet seats intended to improve sanitation have been around in North America since around 1913 (Waltensperger US Patent 79150413) and there was a flurry of such inventions in the U.S. from the late 1930s into the 1940s, but of course continuing to the present.

Let's do some research for your specific counterweighted toilet seat mechanism (which is incomplete in your photo). Look very closely all over the seat and any other parts you got with it to see if there is a trademark or US PATENT NO with some numbers and report that back here.

[Click to enlarge any image]

Here is an example, Porter's patented "sterile Toilet" US Pat No 2332111 from the year I was born, 1943.

Reader follow-up:

Thank you very much for your response. I find this topic fascinating as to the evolution of toilets.

After your response, I checked, somewhat more closely than I would normally care to, for other markings. None found. However, I have since discovered that IXL is actually the trademark for a plumbing company in Philadelphia. I have included here:

(Found inside at p. 156: The “ I X L " Anti-Freezing Closet Combination is guaranteed against freezing, if properly set. It consists of a low-down galvanized tank with lid; porcelain-lined oval-llusliing rim hopper; Iinislicd oak swinging-seat, with equalized weight, ...) a passage from a site advertising an anti-freezing toilet with a seat quite similar to this one.

I have included another image (the bottom) of this seat. Again, I so thank you, and please enlighten me further if you can/will.

Moderator reply:

Thanks for the additional photo and the identification of the seat as an IXL toilet seat.

I think the anti-freezing feature of the IXL Closet would of course depended on designs other than the counter-weighted toilet seat and that the weights were either to make a heavy oak toilet seat easy to lift (to encourage those users who ought to raise the seat ...) or in some designs the counter-weights were to make a normally-raised toilet seat for sanitary reasons.

Gabbe's 1916 water closet valve patent was in fact assigned to IXL which gives us a bit more of the history and dates involved.

Here are some patents assigned to I X L and their dates

• Polzer, Fridolin. "Fluid-pressure tool." U.S. Patent 914,602, issued March 9, 1909. - assignee I X L Mfg Co of New York.
• Levering, Henry W. "Means for closing valves." U.S. Patent 1,094,796, issued April 28, 1914.
• Gabell, Albert F. "Valve construction for water-closet apparatus." U.S. Patent 1,203,724, issued November 7, 1916. Assigned to the I X L Pump And Mfg Company
• Griffiths, William U. "Valve-operating means for flush tanks." U.S. Patent 1,520,863, issued December 30, 1924.

Tracing I.X.L. history is a but of a muddle since there were I.X.L. companies identified also in Atlanta - IXL Enterprises and IXL Holdings.

[Click to enlarge any image]

And your find about the I.X.L. Anti-Freezing Closet Combination (below) appeared in the 1911 Year Book of the ... Annual Architectural Exhibition Held by the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Institute of Architects and the T-square Club of Philadelphia, Volume 17

There were a number of "anti-freezing" valve and toilet designs around the turn of the last century as plumbing began to move inside from the hand-pump and outhouse and while central heating was still limited and uneven in heat distribution in buildings.

Trenton Potteries Co. Welling Toilet

The Trenton Potteries Co. was formed in 1894 from five potteries including Enterprise which had been on this site since 1879. This conglomerate made sanitary ware: domestic, industrial, and institutional.

The Company makers mark was a five pointed star encircling a number between one and six. The number ‘4’ designated Enterprise Pottery.” - History of Trenton Potteries Co., (Enterprise Pottery) (Abramson 1978)

• Abramson, D.V. and T. Karschner. 1978. An Inventory of Historical Engineering and Industrial Sites, Trenton, New Jersey. On file, New Jersey Historic Preservation Office (NJDEP), Trenton, New Jersey.
• Harney, W.J. 1929. “Trenton’s First Potteries.” Sunday Times Advertiser, July 7, 14, 21 and 28, 1929.
• NJ, WHEN POTTERIES FLOURISHED in TRENTON - Transportation was Key, in Cultural Resources Digest, April 2008, New Jersey Department of Transportation, - retrieved 2022/08/24, original source: https://www.state.nj.us/transportation/works/environment/pdf/newyorkavenue042008.pdf
  
  Describes the Enterprise Pottery Co. & Trenton Pottery Co. in Trenton, New Jersey
• Potteries of Trenton Society, A BRIEF HISTORY of the TRENTON POTTERY INDUSTRY [PDF] Potteries of Trenton Society 120 W. State Street Trenton, NJ 08608 USA, Web: https://potteriesoftrentonsociety.org/ - retrieved 2022/0824, original source: https://potteriesoftrentonsociety.org/a-brief-history-of-the-trenton-pottery-industry/
  
  Excerpt: In 1873 Thomas Maddock moved to Trenton to become part owner of the Carroll Street Pottery and began experimenting in the manufacture of sanitary earthenware. Maddock was instrumental in developing the toilet flushing mechanism and many of the water closet designs that are still in general use today.
  
  Within a few years, the Carroll Street Pottery had switched to making predominantly sanitary earthenware. In 1879, a competing firm, the Enterprise Pottery Company, established the first factory built for the mass production of sanitary wares and, within a decade, Trenton was nationally renowned for these goods.
  
  By the turn of the century, numerous potteries in Trenton were producing items such as bathtubs, basins, sinks, toilets, urinals and various bathroom accessories.
• The Trenton Potteries Company. 1896. Specialties Department/The Trenton Potteries Co., Manufacturers of Druggists’ Sundries and Essential Articles for use in Hospitals and Sick-Rooms. Brandt Press, Trenton, New Jersey.

The toilet shown above, for sale on eBay in 2022, was described by the vendor as an antique, original toilet manufactured by Trenton Potteries, Co., made in the 1930s, with these

Approximate measurements:
Overall - 38 3/4"tall x 21 1/2"wide x 29"depth
Floor to rim of Bowl - 16 1/4"
Seat mounts - 5 1/2" apart on center
The waste outlet is 4" outside diameter
Rough in - 16"
Spud diameter - 2"

Below: another Trenton Potteries toilet, described by WorthPoint and marked as "Bellemeade Jr." believed by the writer to be a Welling toilet.

...

- above toilet discussed by a vendor / pricing guide at WorthPoint https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/antique-1910s-1920s-toilet-bowl-wall-1818326195 2022/08/24

On 2024-09-10 y Eric Hua - History of the Rivolite Toilet in Shanghai?

Hello，we found an old toilet in an old building in Shanghai. Is there anyone know about this brand " rivolite "?
We can not find any information about this brand or company in China.
Thank you for any useful information

Reply by InspectApedia Publisher (mod)

@Eric Hua,

Thanks for the excellent Rivolite toilet photo - I'm doing some further research on the brand and history and will post any findings here.

Can you tell me the age of the building in Shanghai?

And if you have a guess at the plumbing system's age that'd be helpful too.

Thanks

Daniel

On 2024-09-12 Eric Hua

@InspectApedia Publisher,

Hello，Daniel!

This house is located in the French Concession of Shanghai and was built in 1923.

The plumbing system's age is same with the house, I think.

Thanks!

On 2024-09-12 Reply by InspectApedia Publisher (mod) - History of the Rivolite Toilet by JD Gordon - Gordon & Co. Ltd. Heating & Sanitary Engineers

@Eric Hua

The company that produced the Rivolite toilet, County Council Pattern, in your photo, is named in the logo as Gordon & Co., Ltd. Shanghai & Hankow.

That name most likely brings us to

Andrew Howard Gordon (Shanghai), an engineer and manager of the British and Electrical and Engineering Co., of China, Ltd. who arrived ca. 1920 - in "The China Who's Who 1922: A Biographical Dictionary compiled and published by Carroll Lunt" - p. 118 - screen shot
found at https://archive.org/stream/chinawhoswho1922/chinawhoswho1922_djvu.txt

AND to an earlier JD Gordon who may have been a relative and antecedent to AH Gordon, and who managed the company that made your toilet:

J.D. Gordon, managing director of Gordon & Co., Ltd. Heating and Sanitary Engineers, Sanitary Engineers, 110, Szechuen Road; Teleph. 1108. Tel. Ad.: Hardware
D.W. Crawford Director
Ed. White do.
J.D. Gordon, Managing Director
et als - see screen shot below from p. 685 from the 1919 edition of Shanghai, Chronicle and Directory to Families of Shanghai

https://www.chinafamilies.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/1919-Chronicle-and-Directory-for-China-Shanghai-1vwvx05.pdf



JD Gordon Sanitary Engineers dates back to earlier Who's Who editions at least as far as 1906.

In turn, a much earlier Gordon who was more widely known was

Charles George Gordon - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_George_Gordon

- a possible antecedent to the Gordon of the ceramics company JD Gordon (though we have no direct evidence of that connection)

Gordon Road in Shanghai, cited in AH Gordon's book (below) appears to have been named for Charles George Gordon

This citation also mentions Gordon Road -

York Lo: From No 1 on the Bund in Shanghai to Kaolin Mine in Cha Kwo Ling – the Century Old China Coast Saga of the McBains

https://industrialhistoryhk.org/from-no-1-on-the-bund-in-shanghai-to-kaolin-mine-in-cha-kwo-ling-the-century-old-china-coast-saga-of-the-mcbains/

Also - see this PDF: https://www.bnasie.eu/Asset/Source/bnBook_ID-1_No-1.pdf

Streets of Shanghai: A History in Itself by A.H. Gordon
PART OF:
Printed material
MADE:
1914
PART OF ARCHIVE:
Kenneth Cantlie Archive
MAKER:
Cantlie, Kenneth

https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/documents/aa110109586

Here's the later Gordon, AH