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Friday, December 22, 2006

More Vintage Bath Pics

This is 2 views of the same bathroom. If you look in the mirror over the sink you can see the towel hung over the marble wall that separates the toilet from the tub in the other photo. I assume the walls are all solid marble was well. It’s interesting, what ever stone it is. The shower enclosure is definitely marble, but the walls look a little different. Maybe the shower enclosure came with the shower and that’s why it looks different.





The photos were taken in 1907 from a house in Utah. It looks a lot like a real bathroom that was displayed in the 1904 Standard catalog I showed pictures of the other day. In fact, except for the toilet, it looks a lot like all the items in the first bathroom drawing. In the drawing it is a low tank toilet, but in the house it is a high tank. Another interesting thing is that the toilet in the photos looks a lot like my high-tank.

I think I may steal that tile boarder. I really like it, and that way I won’t be stealing from anyone I know. It’s practically a victimless crime. Also, now I’m thinking I should do away with the subway tile idea and go with marble walls. What do you think, too much?

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

All of the marble is incredible. The tub is especially cute.

Anonymous said...

Do you know what the small tub is in all the vintage bathrooms? For washing feet? Dog bath? I've never seen anything like that before.

Greg said...

The little tub is called a "Sitz Bath". Sitz is German for 'sit', so you get the idea. Only the hips and butt would be submerged. I guess it was for when the tub was too much and the bidet wasn't enough. I think early on the idea of a daily bath was still foreign to many, and maybe not seen as hygienic. Even showers were not recommended for woman, when they first came out. A sitz bath would probably be used on those “in-between days”. I think there might be a bidet in the room as well, to the right of the sitz bath.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the info. I know that people with hemorrhoids often take sitz baths (using a basin that fits over the toilet) to ease the pain. But I would sure hate to have to lift myself out of that thing when I was done!

Ben Biddle said...

Where's the guy wearing a suit and handing out little towels and mints? That would really impress guests when they stepped in!

Anonymous said...

Love that floor - definitely theft-worthy. Thanks for all the inspiration!

Jocelyn said...

I love the marble myself, but it has a bit more institutional feel. Either choice it's win win in my opinion. Were you planning on tiling floor to ceiling?

Greg said...

No, tiling all the way up is not in the budget. And the marble walls are really, really not in the budget. The plan is to do tile 36-inches up on most walls and a bit higher around the tub.

Anonymous said...

This is a rich person's bathroom; someone who was trying to live up to the high standard set by the catalog illustrations, whether they needed to soak their hemorrhoids or not. If it weren't for the seeming reflection of some towels on the wall in the first photo, I'd be surprised if all of that marble is real. Those Victorians were masterful faux finishers. Think of all the graining and painting techniques they developed to make cheaper woods look like hardwoods. Possibly the shower stall is real marble and the walls are painted to simulate marble. This could explain why they don't quite match. But then there is that apparent reflection.

Greg said...

You make a good point about the faux finishes, but I’m inclined to believe in this case, this is the real thing. Judging from the size of that bathroom, this is a very prominent mansion. It’s my understanding that the very rich of the time spent money freely on things like this. I could be wrong.

Mark said...

Might be just the angle but it looks like a long reach for the toilet paper dispenser. The marble IS just amazing but imagine the amount of support needed from underneath to hold it up. I had enough fears making my shower stall which came in around 1500lbs.

Don said...

Don Hooper at Vintage Plumbing - There would be nothing faux in a bathroom like this. No need for it with the money the owner obviously had to spend. Remember, in 1907 that shower alone cost around $300-400. An average house in America at the time probably cost around $1500 to buy. And the fixtures are decorated, an added expense only the wealthy could afford. So, this owner had ample money to buy dozens of slabs of Italian marble, and could easily pay the labor to install it. Definitely a gorgeous bathroom.

Western General Facilities said...

This is a photo of the Kearns Mansion in Salt Lake City, Utah. The marble is real.