There are just some subjects that we, as humans, seem to want to shy away from discussing. Often this leads to scant primary source materials and later generations asking "How did they, you know...utilize the facilities?" As a professor I get this question from students sometimes, especially when they look at the voluminous gowns of the 18th century and the structured panniers, and it's quite natural for them to be curious about how people back then handled the call of nature. All euphemisms aside, our ancestors obviously had no greater ability to manage their bladders than we do, and must have had ways of coping with challenging clothing, and the evidence does exist for just how they did it.
Exhibit A comes to us courtesy of the 18th century fad for utilizing everyday subjects to depict people in states of undress for titillation. Boilly is one of the best artists for getting an idea of the intimate and every day lives of people. As with the image to the left, wherein he immortalizes a woman at her bidet, he also depicted the lower classes such as servants and peasants, and moments that we would otherwise have only artifacts for, and no clear example of their use. Note that the device shown is like a backwards chair, and has a removeable pot so she can wash her most intimate areas. Most upper class women at least would have had something like this in their bedchambers, as this was prior to the introduction of bathrooms as separate spaces.
There was an exhibition back in 2016 that I sadly did not hear about until much later, presented at the Marmottan Monet Museum and entitled "The Toilet, the Birth of the Intimate," or in its original French "La Toilette: La Naissance de L'Intime." This fairly comprehensive collection features works on bathing and rituals of cleanliness throughout early modern history, which is to say from the Medieval period on. Happily, many of the works can still be seen on the website of the Huffpost article about it, including this very typically Boucher oil painting.
Francois Boucher also gave us this little gem called La Jupe Relevee, (circa 1742) which means The Raised Skirt, and if you've ever taken ballet classes you've probably been instructed to "relever" yourself, i.e. to rise up on your toes. Appropriately, however, the woman being depicted is not only raising her skirts but in the process of relieving (very similar word in English) herself into the narrow porcelain jug she holds beneath her skirts and between her legs. It's actually shaped rather like a modern gravy boat, and many show similar little hook handles exactly so as to make them harder to drop. And do we have examples of these types of porcelain jugs from the period? Why yes we do! The name of this surprisingly pretty item is a Bourdaloue, and they could be used either in the privacy of one's own chamber, in a carriage over a long journey, or even as necessity called when visiting with friends (though one suspects a discreet screen would have been provided at the very least as well).
Note the lid to enclose unpleasant odors. While it may have been possible for a lady to utilize this device on her own as in Boucher's image, it would have been made much easier by having a maid relever her mistress' skirts for her, and then take the full container away to empty.
Many of you will be familiar with the French word Toilette as it is used to described a long, drawn out dressing ceremony which began with Louis XIV and then gradually trickled down through his nobles. I like to hold a mock one when teaching this time period with my students. The term is applied to dressing in general, so it's sometimes confusing for English-speakers, especially those, like my students, who think of toilets as being the same in use as a bourdaloue, but obviously the dressing ceremony and the modern word, have little in common- Not that there isn't still the possibility for humorous confusion of purpose! Many years ago my parents were at an antiques auction in England and bid on, and won, a very sturdily-built wooden chair. Bewildered by the elderly gentleman sitting upon it who bemusedly quipped "Mind if I finish using it first?" They later realized that the seat, covered by a cushion, raised to reveal an inset bowl. They had unknowingly purchased a rather discreet chamber pot, which they own to this day.
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