User:Bishonen/European toilet paper holder
Toilet paper holders are an important facet of European bathroom design. It is often thought that baroque toilet paper holders were an innovation of the 18th century, but this is false, as Palladio designed them at Villa Capra in the 16th century. These were of course Palladian toilet paper holders, magnificent objects adorned with fluted doric columns, supporting a ring from a lion's mouth, on which were hung sheets of decorated parchment. These toilet paper holders were very similar in style to those thought to have been designed by Vitruvius, and much prized by the Romans as a symbol of status. The Emperor Caligula in fact collected these objects d'art and was known to murder in order to obtain a particularly prized specimen. The ancient history of these delightful artefacts confounds those who assume that bathroom fittings and sanitary arrangements were universally primitive before our own day.
The Blenheim holder
The holder pictured on the right is a modern copy of a landmark baroque toilet paper holder known as the "Blenheim holder", which was developed for Blenheim Palace by the architect Sir John Vanbrugh in the 1720s. The Blenheim holder is today perhaps best known for its anomalous resemblance to a modern toilet roll holder. Vanbrugh's model predates the invention of the toilet roll itself by several centuries (compare Toilet paper), and various non-mainstream conjectures including variants of the ancient astronaut theory have been offered in explanation of this seemingly prophetic early design. However, the cylinder cannot in fact be loosened as in a modern roll holder, and most scholars assume that the sheets of newspaper which were commonly used for hygienic purposes in the 18th century were kept in place simply by being tucked behind the cylinder.
Several of these valuable antiques are still in use on the piano nobile at Blenheim Palace, although in the parts of the palace accessible to the public, modern copies have replaced the original fittings. The Blenheim holder, with its hint of neo-classicism, is an understated version of Palladio's opulent design, its seashell backing combining the stylized with the Palladian in an innovative way. The subtly restrained flutings made it one of the most noted and appreciated features of the Blenheim bathrooms, and effected something of a revolution in holder taste among the aristocracy and landed gentry. The English baroque toilet paper holder had arrived.
References
- Blunt, Anthone (ed.) (1978). Baroque and Rococo: Architecture and Decoration. New York: Harper & Row.