The earliest Victorian waterclosets were richly adorned in various different colored motifs, the most common being flowers, leaves or birds.
The shape of bowls varied from almost square to large round bowls on a narrow stem.
There was a wide variety of embossments used on toilets up to World War I when the style changed to the modern unadorned variety.
Of all the pioneers in the development of the modern toilet, Thomas Crapper's name has remained in the public mind although he really didn't make any significant advancement in style or technology. His company still exists and manufactures one of his original washdown waterclosets.
The L. Wolff Manufacturing company of Chicago was one of the largest nineteenth century American plumbing manufacturers and distributors. They had several lines of unusal embossed toilets.