---
title: John Bull chamber pot (Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro, Caldas da Rainha)
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/john-bull-potty-bordalo-1890/
description: A glazed red-clay chamber pot modelled as a stout, scowling John Bull with clenched fists and a striped waistcoat moulded with the words JOHN BULL, so…
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

**Content note:** A chamber pot modelled as the personified figure of Britain (John Bull). This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[![John Bull chamber pot (Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro, Caldas da Rainha)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/john-bull-potty-bordalo-1890.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/john-bull-potty-bordalo-1890.jpg)

# John Bull chamber pot (Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro, Caldas da Rainha)

A glazed red-clay chamber pot modelled as a stout, scowling John Bull with clenched fists and a striped waistcoat moulded with the words JOHN BULL, so that the personified Britain literally becomes a receptacle for waste. The tell is the object itself: the target is reduced by form and function to a chamber pot.

- **Date:** 1890
- **Period:** [Pre-1914](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=pre-1914)
- **Made by:** Fábrica de Faianças das Caldas da Rainha (Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro), Portugal
- **Region:** [Western and Central Europe](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=western-central-europe)
- **Country:** [Kingdom of Portugal](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=kingdom-of-portugal)
- **Medium:** [Object](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=object)
- **Issuer type:** [Corporation](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=corporation)
- **Regime:** [Kingdom of Portugal](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=kingdom-of-portugal)
- **Leader:** [Carlos I](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=carlos-i)
- **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public)
- **Purpose:** [Demonize](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=demonize)
- **Theme:** [Empire and colonialism](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=empire-colonialism)
- **Event:** [British Ultimatum of 1890](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=british-ultimatum-of-1890)
- **Techniques:** [Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_Bull_potty_(1890)_-_Rafael_Bordalo_Pinheiro_(1846_-_1905)_(47395389791).jpg), retrieved September 29, 2026
- **Rights:** CC BY 2.0 (photograph, reviewed on Commons); depicted object by an artist who died in 1905 Photo: Pedro Ribeiro Simões (Flickr, CC BY 2.0), via Wikimedia Commons. Object: Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro (1846-1905), Museu Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro, Lisbon

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
[J]OHN BULL
```

Relief lettering moulded across the waistcoat stripes; the first and last letters are partly obscured by glaze and the lettering is read from the photograph at 960 px.

[← Entre um ministro e um larapio (Between a Minister and a Pilferer), Os Pontos nos ii](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/entre-um-ministro-e-um-larapio-1889/) [Boletín nuevo: Noticias importantes (New Bulletin: Important News), Revolución del Parque →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/boletin-nuevo-revolucion-del-parque-1890/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Passional Christi und Antichristi: the emperor kisses the pope's foot (leaf 'Antichristus')](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passional-christi-antichristi-emperor-kisses-pope-1521/) (1521 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Ondersoeckt de Geesten, ofse van den Duyvel syn, of niet (the De Witt brothers as devils)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ondersoeckt-de-geesten-de-witt-devils-1672/) (1672 · Scapegoating, Name-calling)
- [The Highlanders Medley, or The Duke Triumphant (A Loyal Song)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/highlanders-medley-duke-triumphant-1746/) (1746 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regt.](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/revere-bloody-massacre-king-street-1770/) (Mar 1770 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [Marche du Dom Quichotte moderne pour la deffence du Moulin des Abus (March of the Modern Don Quixote in Defence of the Mill of Abuses)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dom-quichotte-moulin-des-abus-1791/) (1791 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Exit Liberté a la Francois! or Buonaparte closing the Farce of Egalité, at St. Cloud (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/exit-liberte-buonaparte-gillray-1799/) (Nov 21, 1799 · Name-calling)