Want to relive the excitement of California’s gold rush of the mid 19th century? Or the grandeur of the Victorian age? If your answer is a ‘Yes’, try installing an antique sink in your kitchen and mull over the glorious past of your ancestors while eating your meal. Obtaining a real antique or vintage kitchen sink is not going to be easy. The kitchen sink from the pages of the history book is likely to have developed cracks or chinks and the one you are lucky to chance upon may not have the necessary accessories like faucets to make it workable in today’s kitchen. The kitchen sinks of the mid 19th or early 20th century were made of marble, porcelain, fireclay or copper. They mostly came from Continental Europe – France and Italy.
Kitchen sinks from the early 20th century are quite difficult to find in useable original condition. This helps drive the price up. To take one example, a classic 1900 model of marble sink, manufactured in Chicago by the Wolff Mfg. Co, which the Los Angeles-based Vintage Plumbing has put up for sale, has a 4′ tall heavy French plate beveled mirror back splash. It has full original mixer hardware and complete supply and drain hardware below sink. It has nickel plated brass cabriole legs and carved soap dish in the slab drains into the basin. The store has priced it at $8,900.