I'm having a bit of a low tech problem.

My toilet is one of those tacky, early landlord special, low-flush models which ought to be called a "no-flush" toilet, because it often takes several flushes to get its job done, and many times a plunger is needed in addition to that. (Yechh!)

As Radley Balko pointed out, these notorious, bureaucratically-mandated toilets created a black market in the United States for Canadian toilets:

In 1992, Congress passed the Energy Policy Act, a big, honking piece of legislation that sought to codify into federal law the thousands of administrative laws put forth by the Department of Energy. It set crucial, national-security-affecting policies such as how cold refrigerators were permitted to be. Also included in that massive bill was a tiny, barely-noticed-at-the-time provision mandating that every toilet sold in the United States after the year 1994 use no more than 1.6 gallons of water per flush. That provision quickly became known in toilet industry circles (yes, there are toilet industry circles) as the flush twice rule, as patriotic, beef-eating Americans who bought domestic toilets after 1994 had no choice but to flush twice to be sure all their business washed away before houseguests arrived. It also created Im not kidding a black market for Canadian toilets toilets with big, glorious, gluttonous bowls, capable of holding 3, 3 , even four gallons of water.

I've long favored keeping the government out of our bedrooms. So how the hell did they get into the bathrooms? It doesn't stop with low flow toilets, either. "Potty parity" laws (see my angry post on the subject) are already a reality in many cities and in most new construction. The most visible result is fewer urinals -- which means men are wasting a bowl full of water to take a leak! (Fighting sexism, I guess, trumps water conservation....)

Anyway, after five years of living here, my piece of crap crapper has become loose at the base, not in the usual manner which can be solved by pulling and reseating the toilet with a new wax ring, but the whole mounting ring is loose in the floor (which means the flooring has rotted in the area around the toilet flange and will have to be replaced).

I don't feel like spending my time and money removing a toilet I hate and repairing the floor, only to reinstall the same God-awful Toilet from Hell. This house was built in 1911, and I'd like a toilet of a style similar to the one which was obviously once here originally. The problem is, they're not easy to find, as there are a whole host of laws prohibiting vintage toilets, nor are used toilets available for sale in this area. I'm thinking that I should try to find a wrecking contractor or wrecking yard, tell them I need an old toilet for a planter or an art project, and take my chances.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Thanks to the insightful comments below, my research led me to the startling discovery that used toilets which once belonged to Jerry Garcia have recently been offered for sale!