Crane Sink Information

Hi all -

First time poster and currently under contract on an 1898 Victorian home, so I'm learning quickly!

I'm trying to identify a production time period and any other information for this vintage sink but I'm coming up empty on the "Carolina" model from Crane.

There are some numbers + model/dimension on the underside and the referenced patent was filed on May 8, 1929 and issued on July 21, 1931. DEA Bath Machineries seems to be an authority on Crane Sinks but this model isn't in their sink index, either.

Anyone have any ideas or information? Thank you!

 

https://patents.google.com/patent/US1815705A/en

Shows your 7-21-31 date and expected expiration date of 7-21-48. If you scroll down on the page there is a lot of stuff to read. You can also expand "Image (1)".

Not sure what else there would be to find out.

Not original to your 1898 home and in serious need of restoring if you are going to keep it.

 

Modern plumbing was born in the 1930s here ( it only took 2,000 years to figure out how to vent traps ) so not even antique at this point nor original to the 1898 house.
There are few objects less desirable than "antique" plumbing fixtures and your wall-hung sink's only value is in the scrap cast iron.

 

@BrandonInDurango
The Crane Carolina was pictured in a 1954 Crane brochure. So at least you know the Carolina was being manufactured and sold at least until that date. Maybe longer, but I have found nothing else.

https://retrorenovation.com/2018/05...oms-sinks-tubs-and-toilets-catalog-from-1954/

Are you looking for parts?

 

I beg to differ. While not all old plumbing fixtures are worth saving, many are superior to what is being made new. You also can not often duplicate authenticity in design with something new.

 

Yep, we are going to have to disagree here.
The business/money end of any plumbing system is under the floor & behind the walls. The fixtures are just the icing on that cake.
You only get one lifetime (50 years) on a correctly installed system. After that, the band-aids start appearing to keep the system going which only postpones the inevitable replacement of the entire system.
Considering the hideous costs of a new plumbing system (it's the pipe/labor where the real money is) I (semi-retired plumbing & mechanical contractor, 40+ years in the biz) have never had a residential/commercial client that iced that cake with old plumbing fixtures. Nor would it be prudent to do so financially as on a sale, who exactly is going to explain you have new plumbing but old fixtures?
The notion that modern plumbing fixtures are inferior in any way to plumbing fixtures in the 1930s is preposterous & not worthy of comment.

 

The issue with this sink is that it needs to be fully re-enameled. Trying to brush on a paint over the rusted through areas never really succeeds, though it can make it look better in the short-term. There are places that will do a good job with re-enameling, so it is worth getting quotes if you want to save it.

The Crane corporation is still in business, and still makes great fixtures, high-end and not available through Home Depot type retailers. Your sink is certainly better than most if not all at a Home Depot retailer. Because they have a long life they are used commercially in office buildings a lot; my last place of work had Crane fixtures.

Crane family is best known in New England now for the beach of the same name in Ipswich, MA, and the family mansion and grounds which used to include the then private beach. The mansion has been restored and available for tours and events; I attended a friend's wedding there twenty years ago or so and it has been extensively renovated since then so is in even better condition. (BTW, I know first-hand that the bathrooms in the mansion all have original Crane plumbing fixtures - still in perfect operating condition - no surprise!).

 

LOL, OK I'll bite! since it's the dog days of summer here and I am hiding from the heat, nothing better to do than argue over junk!
Crane Company entered the plumbing biz in the 1920s and sold their plumbing operation in the 1980s ( I think to American Standard), they have not made any plumbing fixtures or anything else to do with plumbing in over 40 years.
History of Crane
https://www.craneco.com/about/history/default.aspx

In its day, Crane had very good quality plumbing products but compared with today, it would be considered primitive, very primitive. That would be expected since modern plumbing did not come about until the 1930s. Although plumbing is an ancient profession over 2000 years old, the word plumber comes from the Latin
Plumbarius, and translates into "worker of lead". 2000 years later and we are STILL messing with it, I blame the Romans, they started all this!
Back to fixtures for a moment, a kitchen faucet recently installed on a 400k kitchen remodel.
It's individually machined by hand using the finest materials on the planet & the level of design sophistication is unequaled anywhere on earth. Built-in the USA, prices starting at 5k, this model I think was in the 8k-9k range for ONE FAUCET!
Waterstone Endeavor


I would note, Toto is the big dog in the plumbing fixture industry at the moment, very good stuff.
I would add, women have VERY LITTLE humor when it comes to plumbing products in both the residential & commercial world. I learned long ago not to mess with them in that area. Plumbers bake the cake (pipe no one can see) for sure but, women pick the icing I can assure you.

 

I'll bet Champagne comes out of the faucet,,,,,,,,

 

LOL, well no, no humor remember! pretty positive water came out, both hot & cold!

 

It's not my taste at all, it's got a steam punk/muscle car type vibe to it. I think the old woman probably threw the old man a bone on the kit remodel ya know? Had to give him SOMETHING for that kitchen cost!
Absolutely beautifully machined though, a piece of work art for sure.

 

Oh ya....ya.....well....phooey on that !!!!

I'll bet the cold was sparkling seltzer and the hot was blue mountain coffee......

so there !!!!

 

Well, James that statement made me actually LOL - I have trouble imagining you backing down from a 'little old house-wife'.

and it is BUTT UGLY to boot.

 

I get my 2 cents in to both the wife on residential and design ladies on commercial jobs but, at the end of the day, I don't really care.
What's important to me is, the system under the floor and behind the wall, the stuff you can't see and there, I RULE!

Well, you know, who the hell knows what's in a woman's mind about that kind of thing, certainly not me.
BLACK IS IN!!! REALLY IN these days, I have no clue why.
I warn them that you'll hate it in a year or 2 plus, a single spec of dust WILL be seen!
They don't care! This is what they want and this is what we are doing today!

 

Black has been 'in', for a lot of years, in appliances. Always wondered WHO would do a black kitchen?. . .my brother & his wife did. . .sigh

For faucets, I prefer a nice, soft brushed nickel. Timeless IMHO.

 

Well, there ya go! What is wrong with your gender? I have no idea!
I simply stay out of it, give them my 2 cents quickly where I may as well have been talking to the family cat.
Then install the nutty stuff they want! Everyones happy!

 

Did not mean to be harsh here but, if buying an 1898 house and the MEP work (mech-elect-plumb) is anywhere close to original, it will ALL need to be replaced.
Do yourself a favor & figure out how best to accomplish that task or it can quickly turn into a Walter Fielding type event, entertaining to watch on screen, a nightmare to live thru.

 

I had forgotten that movie existed. It was so hilarious!

 

I thought so too but film critics didn't like it, panned it pretty bad.
For those who have ever remodeled/restored an old house kind of a must-see movie because they know all too well how traumatic that experience can be.

 

Lol. I guess you need to have a talk with the caretakers of the 59 room Crane mansion in Ipswich I mentioned earlier. Sounds like they should rip out all those outdated crappy plumbing fixtures and "upgrade" to some of those $8000 faucets you put in. Right now they seem to be stuck with their crummy fixtures: https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2015/08/an-ipswich-idyll "Most impressive, however, are the bathrooms—befitting a plumbing millionaire. Each of the seven bedrooms has its own, many outfitted with then-cutting edge Art Deco fixtures and one decorated almost entirely in Delft tiles. Richard Crane’s features a large tub with gleaming silver-plated piping and faucets, a shower with 12 nozzles, a white marble floor, and heated towel rack. His wife’s is pale green with delicate glass shelving and loads of gray-veined marble providing an archway over the sink, the tub-surround, and flooring accents."

I guess you must live in a new house. People who live in antique houses consider themselves caretakers, just the same as owners of antique furniture. Trying to keep originality is just what good owners do - the same as good owners of antique furniture. If you haven't run into that, then you must not do work in any worthwhile older houses. The idea that owners of old houses should rip out all their old fixtures, regardless of originality and quality, is as alien to me as the idea that we should be stripping original paint off of antique furniture and covering it with polyurethane. To each his own, though, LOL.