Salvage Gloat
My neighbor a few houses down the street just became the proud owner of a bouncing baby antique & salvage store. Actually the store has been around for several years, but it is new to her. We don’t get those great salvage yards like you find in big cities. You know the kind where they have a half dozen claw foot tubs sitting in front of a dozen fireplace mantles which are holding up a few hundred old doors. Around here they are smaller and mostly have antiques, a lot of which is from out of the area, a lot of junk, and then a little salvage. You really have to be on top of things if you want the good stuff.
I make – or try to make - a weekly trip to the two places that have any real salvage. The place in question recently changed owners and Sheri, my neighbor, is the new owner. She had worked there for many years and recently took over the business. I stopped in on Sunday and Sheri and Rose (Be still my heart), the old owners daughter, were working the store.
I stopped and chatted with both for a while and then made my way around the store. This place is actually pretty big. It is in two neighboring buildings, both over 100 years old, and covers 3 floors. Mostly furniture. In the back on top of a desk I saw an old oak high-tank toilet tank. It was marked $49.00. As I said there isn’t a lot of this sort of thing in this town and when it shows up it doesn’t last long.
I’m not going to be doing the downstairs bathroom for several years but you’ve got to get it when you find it. I told Sheri I wanted to buy the tank and she feigned shock and dismay because I rarely buy stuff but I look a lot. I told here it was marked at $49.00 so I would have to come back for it. She asked me how much I had in my pocket and I pulled out $36.00. She said that’s close enough and the tank was mine. It is a good thing I ate lunch before I stopped in or I would have paid $41.00 for it.
All The Parts Are There And I Already Have The Old Bowl
There Is Oak Under That White Paint
6 comments:
Now you need to find one of those old square toilet seats to sit on.
My mother had one in their 1820s English Georgian house that was original to the installation of the "water closet".
Rumor has it that the toilet was actually invented in Ireland. Several years later the English discovered this unique invention and put a hole in the top.....
That's a great find indeed. I'm not going to redo the bathrooms with the antique high sitting toilet tank so I'll be interested to see how yours turns out.
I put a high-tank toilet in my upstairs bathroom last year. It works great. The thing flushes like a jet engine.
The 1820s toilet sounds very cool. I would love to see one. If I wanted to be period specific for my house (1895) I would put in what is known as a “Washout” bowl. The washout type bowls did not have a standing pool of water at the bottom, and the “S” trap to prevent sewer gas was in the floor much like a tub drain is today. They were a lot of times heavily decorated and ornate. The “Washdown” toilet more closely resembles a modern toilet. They came in to use sometime in the early 1890s, so really they are also period accurate for my house. My house most likely had the old style Washout toilet as original equipment.
Cool find! For some reason, I find old toilets fascinating.
I have always meant to take my kids to the toilet museum (American Sanitary Plumbing Museum in Watertown, MA). Casting it as research for bathroom restoration in my own house--now that's the angle to get me there! Strolling through the toilet displays with Greg--priceless! C'mon Greg, Philly was great, how 'bout Boston next?
Boston has always been near the top of my list, but now that I know there is a plumbing museum near by it has shot up to the top? I imagine they have some serious eye-candy in that place.
Greg
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