Rei Extincta: Extinct Things

Posset Pots - Top Shelf
These strange-looking vessels were designed for drinking a warm alcoholic drink made from cream, wine, and eggs. Communal drinking vessels fell out of favor as the fashion shifted toward the use of individual glasses.

Chamber Pots - Middle Shelf
Chamber pots – also known as thunder mugs and piss-pots – are among the oldest and most important ceramic forms, yet they rarely are seen in museums. Although somewhat similar in form to the earliest European cooking pots, chamber pots had wider rims, stronger handles, and sometimes convenient lids. The examples on this shelf span more than 300 years, from a seventeenth-century Dutch version to an example featuring Hollywood star Rudolph Valentino as Lawrence of Arabia. While chamber pots are
still an important part of the waste management system in many parts of the world, they are largely extinct
in the United States.

Puzzle Jugs & Fuddling Cups - Lower Shelf
These unusual drinking vessels once were common forms of home and tavern amusement. Puzzle jugs required the user to fi gure out which of the multiple spouts was connected to a built-in straw that ran down the handle to the wine or punch within. As an additional riddle, suction could only
be generated when the user’s fi ngers covered all of the non-functioning spouts and holes. Equally popular
were fuddling cups, which were multiple small containers joined together and connected within through small holes than ran from one cup to another. The only way to avoid
spilling the wine or ale was to drink from the cups in a particular order.