Friday, March 13, 2009

The perfect bathroom sink faucet set

My idea of the perfect faucet

My idea of the perfect faucet

I never liked the faucets on most of the sinks from 1920s houses, not because the hot and cold were separate, but because they were so close to the edge of the sink. I recently learned that mixer faucets were available in the 1920s, albeit only in higher-end installations. I've been looking for various plumbing bits, trying to piece together the pieces of hardware to make the bathrooms complete. Most of this will have to wait for a while, given the cost of most of these things, but it's nice to know what's out there so that one can plan.

I came across the gem above on eBay recently - it sold for about $125. It's the only porcelain mixer faucet of that era that I've seen - all the rest are metal. It would have been perfect, oh yes. Even with the cost of rebuilding the valves, it would have been worth it. Whether I could convince A of that is another matter. My eyes remain open for the next one to hit the market.

This is all a diversion, mind you, to keep me from ranting about my plumber and general contractor. I've a phone call to make tomorrow morning. Argh.

3 comments:

Jayne said...

I agree, that's perfect. Why can't perfect things also be within our budgets? Sigh...

Why S? said...

That is a beautiful set. I'm sure you'll find one of your own one day. You found your stove.

Good luck with that phone call.

Christopher Busta-Peck said...

Jayne, in my mind, such a faucet is reasonably priced. I justify it to myself by comparing the cost of the faucet plus the cost of getting it fully operational - total= $225 - with the cost of a new faucet of comparable quality, which would almost certainly cost more.