JOHN BOLDING ANTIQUE BASINS RESTORED

We were asked to restore some old antique sinks in an old property. When we arrived we found a lovely old property having its original features, fixtures and fittings restored and renewed. As there were over a dozen bedrooms it was a relatively big undertaking.

The basins were part of the restoration work so we were called in as the restoration experts to restore them. We had to repair some cracked sinks. We did also restore some fantastic antique baths in this property.

The basins we were asked to restore were in the bedrooms. As an aside the bedroom vintage wallpaper looks fantastic! There were quite a few sinks that were cracked or completely broken. Repairing cracked sinks is a specialist job.

The fact that the basins had lasted so long was amazing. They were original John Bolding Basins from the first Bolding works. This dates the basins circa 1880-1890.

John Bolding and Sons Ltd were great rivals of Thomas Crapper & Co ltd and in 1963 John Bolding and Sons ltd became the owners of Thomas Crapper and Co ltd. The basins by Bolding are quite distinctive and very aesthetic.

Normally these particlar sinks would be beyond repair. However we have developed an innovative restoration process which we have been using for the last 18 months with great success. So now whereas architectural salvage company’s or private individuals were having to dispose of beautiful antique basins we can restore them. We think we are the only bath and sink restoration company that can fix sinks with cracks or damage such as this.

Once repaired we would normally resurface the sinks completely. They would look fantastic, feel fantastic and look virtually new. However the John Bolding Emblem/Logo would be lost. That was not an option in this situation. So we had to very carefully colour match and blend in our restoration work so that the sinks were renewed but the repairs were virtually invisible and the logo stayed intact. Thus preserving the heritage and integrity of the sinks. As you can see the results are fantastic. Restoration work like this is priceless. These basins could have ended up being thrown out with all the history and heritage lost with them. Now they can be admired and used for the next 100 years.

If you have some historic or antique basins, baths, bidet or toilets you would like to salvage and bring back to life contact: The Bath Business, The Bath and Basin restoration specialist. They can help you.

CAST IRON ROLL TOP BATH RESTORED

Here is a typical example of our day-to-day work here at the bath business.

This bath is a lovely old Victorian cast iron bath. It has original Globe taps and lovely detailed ball and claw feet. The bath is a good example of a freestanding bath. The client has managed to have it fitted against a wall and tiled it in but the detail of the bath is not lost. It’s just a nice, deep, old cast iron bath. Clearly from the pictures the bath is quite badly stained. It also felt very rough. You wouldn’t run your hand across the bath as it felt so rough and you certainly would not sit in it. It was also almost impossible to clean. The dirt seemed embedded into the bath and as the bath was so rough new dirt easily stuck to the bath.

Once we resurfaced the bath we also sanded and polished the bath. A common practise with specialist car finishers. Your Porsche car or Jaguar will have had its bonnet polished extensively before it came anywhere near a car show room.  As the bath resurfacing work is not done in a spray booth environment there is inevitably some dust in the environment which can end up on the bath. The sanding will rectify this and give the bath a very smooth, silky finish. An added benefit is that the new surface is so smooth it is difficult for dirt to stay on the bath. So the bath becomes very easy to clean and very easy to  keep clean.

For more information on re enamelling your old Victorian or Edwardian cast iron bath visit https://www.thebathbusiness.co.uk

Thomas Crapper. Original Lever Taps Fully Restored

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 Thomas Crapper and Co were very well-known for the quality of their products and received several Royal Warrants. It is a name that exudes quality to this day.

There are quite a few Victorian company’s that helped establish and promote high standards and quality of  British workmanship. Within the fine sanitary wear business John Bolding and certainly Thomas Crapper and Co would be counted amongst these. If you are lucky enough to have some Thomas Crapper taps it is well worth restoring them.

Here are some stunning original Thomas Crapper taps. As you can see they were in a terrible state. One of the handleswas completely missing and they were unusuable. 

To recondition and re plate these taps first of all the taps would be taken apart and inspected thoroughly. If any parts were found to be missing or faulty these would be replaced. Then the taps would be put back together again and tested to ensure they worked correctly. After this the taps would need to be taken apart again to be plated. In this instance a lovely silver nickel plate was applied. Again the taps would be put together again and tested before finally being packaged a returned to their owner. Arguably more work goes into reconditioning and re plating the taps than the original construction.

The specialist tap technician has done a fantastic job of restoring the taps so they look absolutey stunning.

If you would like to have some original taps restored contact us at The Bath Business.

We also sell original restore antique taps by Thomas Crapper, John Bolding, Dent & Hellyer, George Jennings to name a few. Contact us if you need to source a particular style or make. If we don’ have them in stock we can probably find them for you.