I recently read the novel Fingersmith, by Sarah Waters, which takes place in Victorian England, and an odd detail made me curious. There's a scene where an upper class woman ends up in a slum in London, and she's creeped out by a chamber pot that has an eye painted on the inside, with the lines:
"Use me well and keep me clean / And I'll not tell of what I've seen!
A present from Wales"
It's obviously meant to illustrate how she finds the lower class characters tacky/tasteless, but is there any historical basis for chamber pots like this? I'm especially amused by the last line's implication that this was a souvenir. I'm picturing "My parents went to Wales and all they got me was this stupid chamber pot."
Yes, they definitely were. I'm not sure about like a tourist souvenir specifically, but during the 18th and 19th centuries it wasn't uncommon to have chamberpots with funny sayings or portraits at the base. This was especially true once transfer printing decoration became more widely available after the turn of the 19th century. Most people would have had plain chamber pots still as added decoration cost more money and the chamber pot was often utilitarian, not displayed.
Portraits of English kings and other political figures were especially popular in the Americas. To the point that when working on archaeological excavations from the 18th century I've always been told that if you find a portrait of King George there is a good chance it will be on a chamberpot base (I can't say I've ever found one with a portrait or words though). There were also numerous chamber pots produced with Napoleon's head on the base. While looking online for a photographic example, I found a book that just came out that looks like it will have a lot of information on political chamber pots. Since it was published so recently I have not had a chance to read it yet, but it looks great. https://www.oxbowbooks.com/oxbow/pots-prints-and-politics.html.
Here is a blog post from the North East Region of the National Park Service showing a chamberpot with a minor political figure in the base. https://nmscarcheologylab.wordpress.com/2011/04/20/ask-a-curator-handpainted-pearlware-chamber-pot/
If you google "funny chamber pot 18th century" or "funny chamber pot 19th century" you will find a number of examples. Most are just not on academic pages or verified so I'm not sure if I can link to them here.