A Victorian Bedroom Necessity
by Bob Brooke

Before the dawn of the modern bathroom, people tended to their personal hygiene needs at a modest washstand in their bedrooms. But the commonly known Victorian washstand has a long and varied history.

It all began in ancient Greece, Philo of Byzantium, a Greek engineer and writer on mechanics, describes a mechanism consisting of a counterweighted spoon, supplied by a water tank, that tipped over into a basin when full, releasing a pumice in the process. Once the spoon had emptied, the counterweight pulled it up again, closing the door on the pumice by the tightening string.

The Romans continued this washing routine using a large clay bowl into which they poured water from a ceramic pitcher or ewer to wash their face and hands. For more thorough cleansing, many Romans would go to the public baths daily.

By the Middle Ages—the period after the fall of the Roman Empire—public baths had fallen into disuse. During the 12th century, palaces and castles often contained one or more fixed lavatories, constructed into the thickness of the walls. Eventually, these lavatories became portable and by the mid 17th century, a basin frame came into common use. Until the end of the century, the basin frame stood on a tripod stand. A circular hole in the top held the basin and smaller ones held a soap dish and a water bottle. Sometimes, a shelf below for the water jug held it when the basic was in use, and a drawer or two were added below the basin.

By the 18th-century, people continued using a basin stand or basin frame. Its direct, but remote, ancestor was the monastic lavabo, ranges of basins of stone, lead or marble fed from a cistern, or tank.. They were usually primitive. A trough common to all was probably more frequent than separate basins. Very occasionally, wealthier folk washed at bronze basins, adorned with enamels and blazoned with heraldry.

Cabinetmakers produced large numbers of these stands to fit into corners. Thomas Chippendale designed such stands in an elaborate Rococo style, as well as in a simpler form.

By the end of the 18th century, the use of the same room for receiving guests by day and for sleeping at night created a demand for multi-use pieces of furniture.. Thus a variety of complicated combination washstands and dressing tables were made, and fitted with mirrors and sometimes with writing conveniences and drawers for clothes.

In the beginning of the 19th century and the expansion of ideals of personal cleanliness, the washstand grew in size and importance. It acquired the form of an oblong wooden table provided, like its smaller predecessors, with orifices for basins and fitted with a brad shelf-like stretcher upon which the jugs were placed when they were removed from the basins. These washstands had ample space for soap-dishes and water-bottles. Some of these washing tables had room for two bowls for the use of one or two persons.

In the third quarter of the 19th century, furniture makers replaced the wooden top of their washstands with marble tops on which the water basins rested upon the slab, which, in the beginning were mostly white, while later ones were made of red or other warm-tinted marble.

Styles of Washstands
The simple tripod washstand continued in common use for armies on the march. The folding tripod allowed it to be set up and packed up easily for travel.

During the Victorian Era, washstand design broadened with the many styles of furniture being produced. In all, seven different styles dominated the furniture market. Each had its own style of washstand.

From the 1840s on, furniture manufacturers began producing bedroom suites, each complete with a washstand, whether open table or closed cabinet style. These ranged from simple chests with a towel bar above or at the side to elaborate ones with marble tops and large mirrors.

Victorian washstands were mostly machine made. The most elaborate ones were in the Renaissance Revival style. Usually made of walnut, these chest washstands usually had matching burl veneers, carvings, marble tops, and fancy drawer pulls. Eastlake was another popular style. More geometric and linear in form, Eastlake washstands had many of the same features as the Renaissance Revival ones.

Simpler washstands in the Golden Oak style, popular in the 1890s, had clean lines in both the chest and table forms.

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