User:Bishonen/Toilet paper holder

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Main article: User:Bishonen/European toilet paper holder

A sample of patterned Byzantine toilet paper and portable holder designed to be worn round the neck.

Toilet paper holders are an important facet of European bathroom design. Recently unearthed records of toilet paper holder practices in ancient Greece are now bringing us fresh insight into the contrasting cultures of Sparta and Athens, while in ancient Rome, toilet paper holders designed by Vitruvius were prized as status symbols. In the later Byzantine Empire, the aesthetic qualities of the toilet paper itself, rather than of the holder, come to the fore for the first time, as evidenced by the lovely icon paper shown right, with its obvious religious significance. The toilet paper holder, previously an essentially secular item, also emerges as religiously central in early Christianity, with an important role to play in the myth of the Holy Grail itself. Some recently discovered British Bronze age cave paintings have provided detailed evidence for the previously disputed nature of the use of toilet paper holders by sun worshippers at Stonehenge.

The artistic glory days of the European toilet paper holder were however the 16th to early 20th centuries, with their splendour of bathroom fittings stretching unbroken from Palladio to Fabergé. Individual toilet paper holders of spectacular opulence have again and again played key roles at crisis points in European history: a uniquely alarming Palladian polar bear holder dissuaded England's Virgin Queen Elizabeth I from marriage with the King of Sweden, one jewelled Fabergé holder precipitated the Russian Revolution, and another exacerbated the course of World War I. In spite of the historical importance of these cultural artefacts, their own history is surprisingly under-researched. Some feminist scholars ascribe this disproportion to the masculine domination technique of "toilet humour", meaning to belittle and ridicule toilet paper holders and other door furniture in the essentially feminine space of the bathroom.

1 Early forms
2 North American toilet paper holder
3 South American toilet paper holder
4 African toilet paper holder
5 Asian toilet paper holder
6 Australian toilet paper holder
7 Antarctic toilet paper holder

[edit] Early forms

Main article: Ancient toilet paper holder

The concept of what was to be termed "toilet paper holder" predates the invention of paper itself. Early forms were excavated in the archaeological contexts of Sumer and Ancient Egypt, as well as in the Indus Valley Civilization. Unfortunately, in all cases the actual "paper" had corroded away, and often these artefacts were mistaken for vessels or figurines of cultic or ritual significance. What materials exactly they may have been furnished with is open to speculation, but most likely it was the materials these cultures also used to write on, such as leaves, bark, and, in extremely arid environments, moist clay, possibly enriched with straw or chaff.