The hunt for vintage kitchen sinks

Want to relive the excitement of the mid-19th century California Gold Rush? Or the grandeur of the Victorian era? If your answer is ‘Yes’, try installing an antique sink in your kitchen and reflect on the glorious past of your ancestors while you eat.

Getting an authentic antique or vintage kitchen sink is not going to be easy. The kitchen sink from the pages of the history book has likely developed cracks or cracks and the one you are lucky enough to find may not have the necessary accessories such as faucets to make it work in today’s kitchen.

Kitchen sinks in the mid-19th or early 20th centuries 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 hard to find in usable original condition. This helps raise the price.

To take one example, a classic 1900 marble sink model, made in Chicago by Wolff Mfg. Co, which Los Angeles-based Vintage Plumbing has listed for sale, has a 4-foot-tall heavy French plate beveled mirror backsplash. It has complete original mixer hardware and complete under sink supply and drain hardware. It has cabriole legs in nickel-plated brass and a soap dish carved into the slab with drains in the sink. The store has appraised it at $8,900.

According to Vintage Plumbing, kitchen sinks from the 1920s and 1930s are very popular with customers, so they have a pretty good stock of them. The store features vintage farmhouse kitchen sinks made by Kohler’s, Standard Sanitary Mfg Co, as well as Wolff Mfg. Co. However, the store admits that it’s hard to find sinks in good condition.