SUPER RARE!! My 1981 Armitage Shanks "Chobe" ST Syphonic toilet suite flushing!!

Описание: 2026 brings another incredible find, and one I’ve been curious about ever since I first discovered it’s existence in February of 2022! After this discovery, I was able to identify a very mysterious model that my local salvage yard had way back in 2019, so it technically was fist discovered in 2019 but wasn’t fully identified untill much later on.

I was gladly able to share photos and a flush here on YT when it was first discovered, but sadly the footage was rather poor quality as it came from a 3rd party, but now we get to see it in much better detail.

This is an Armitage Shanks Chobe single trap syphonic toilet suite from 1981, in glorious avocado colour, and is the first ever addition to come from Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape, and because of this, the cistern is using a syphon with an external overflow. The brass P1 float valve and "Marley" float ball was supplied by me as this didn’t come with an original inlet valve assembly.

The design and sound of the flush pattern is pretty much on par with the rest of the South African Armitage Shanks lineup from this era which makes sense but I didn’t quite expect it as the first ever footage of this flush seemed quite different, but then again it was much weaker.

This toilet is very rare as only a handful have turned up since 2019 with this being this 6th one to turn up for sale in almost 7 years.

One thing to note is that the cistern is not original and is a replacement from 1984, albeit a little bit frustrating, this is the newest ASA 33 cistern I’ve ever seen being made in August of 1984 essentially making it the very last of it’s kind so an incredibly rare find.

One thing you will notice that is rather interesting is the cistern lid, which is also year matching to the pan and was previously used with it’s original cistern, these bento box style lids from Armitage Shanks surfaced for the first time in September last year with two being for sale on marketplace, unfortunately they were incomplete without pans, but it’s very unique and something I envisioned Armitage Shanks making a good while back, I just didn’t actually think they existed. I would image this lid was sold as an optional configuration along with the standard lid. This pickup did also include the standard ASA 33 lid from 1984 that goes with the replacement cistern.

This cistern will do for now, but an original year matching ASA 33 cistern will be sourced in time.

Overall a very cool addition!

Here is the first ever Armitage Shanks Chobe to be documented, and also shows the original period correct cistern from 1981:    • Super rare!! 1980/81 Armitage Shanks "Chob...