QUEEN Victoria does not look amused - and who can blame her?

The bowl she holds was once the Royal throne of kings - and now it has become the people's potty.

At least two members of the royal family, George IV and Victoria's own Prince Albert, are believed to have had a passing acquaintance with the splendid silver chamber pot.

It is the centrepiece of a spectacular new jubilee exhibition, Fit for a King, at Fairfax House, York.

The chamber pot is one item from the impressive collection of gold and silver treasures amassed over the past 350 years by the lord mayors of York.

Usually, they are kept under lock and key in the city's Mansion House, but the hidden assets have been released for an exhibition which continues until September 30.

"Perhaps in view of this year's royal milestone, we should have called our exhibition Fit for a Queen," said Mansion House director Peter Brown.

"But that is implied in the grandeur of many of the pieces gifted to the city over the years, giving us what is surely the finest, if not the most unusual, regional collection of civic gold and silver in the country."

The tureens and tankards, porringers and pepperpots, candlesticks and centrepieces all vie for space with oddities such as a Georgian sandwich toaster, whistling wine stopper, and the dainty chamber pot.

All - with the obvious exception of the potty - were objects for conspicuous show and entertaining at table. From Georgian times it was incumbent on the Lord Mayor to keep up the dignity of the city and host dinner parties for the visiting great and good - Royals included. Prince Albert's visit in 1850 led to the most sumptuous civic spread ever seen in the city, using silver also on show at the exhibition.