Hitler potty among loos up for sale

More than 1,200 bathroom items are up for sale as part of the wider collection

A collection of bathroom items which includes hundreds of Thomas Crapper loos is up for sale, and among the items is a potty with Adolf Hitler's face on the bottom.

Toilets, taps, basins and baths make up the Crapper cluster, with the owner hoping someone will be "en suite" enough to buy it as a job lot, lest the lovely lavs be split up.

Simon Kirby, former boss at Warwickshire-based Thomas Crapper & Co, is selling hundreds of the antique items eight years after leaving the firm.

The collection, which formed the basis of a private museum at the company, took almost 40 years to assemble and can be yours for about £300,000, if you're feeling flush.

Former owner of Thomas Crapper & Co, Simon Kirby, is selling the collection

Mr Kirby said he collected the pieces gradually, as a personal project, when he was managing director.

His collection includes ornate WC pans and basins covered in floral decoration, huge old cast-iron baths, antique brass taps, polished wooden loo seats, and that potty with the Fuhrer feature, designed not by Thomas Crapper, but Crown Devon.

Mr Kirby said: "These pieces are now so rare, the collection could not be assembled today.

"I no longer run a Victorian sanitaryware company, so I cannot justify keeping the collection. It is time for it to be explored and enjoyed by the public."

Sara Morel, CEO of Salvo, an online architectural salvage marketplace, said the company had been asked to help re-home the collection to "preserve its future".

A video tour was uploaded to the Salvo website, showing never-seen-before footage of the entire collection.

Ms Morel said: "Touring the private museum was fun, insightful, and a privilege. As the video shows, each piece holds stories that must be saved and shared."

The exhibits were in "fine condition", Salvo said, with more than 1,200 items dating back to the 1830s and up to the 1960s.

The collection took almost 40 years to assemble