I have a confession to make: All these years, I have not really been reading all my vintage marketing materials much — I have been looking at the pictures and kind of scanning text. I have soaked up a lotta, for sure, but now, I have started going back and reading… trying to pick up more of the wherefore and why-to of mid century design details. Along the way, I’m also discovering more rare and fascinating things that were, apparently, tried out, but didn’t really catch on, so were abandoned. Which made me remember, above: “Dental sinks.”
This question first came up a while ago when I posted about 1940s interior decorating style. (Note the carrera glass tile and high-contrast jazz-age look: A dead giveaway that it’s 1940s.) In her comment, Laura asked:
What a great article! I have one question though … in the very last image, do you have any idea what’s up with the big sink and the little sink? I’ve never seen anything like that before … wondering if this is a house for the three bears, and Mama Bear’s sink isn’t in the picture. LOL
When I was in the first grade in Sister Mary Meda’s class at St. Christopher’s in Carlsbad, California, I won a chocolate Easter bunny in a class talent competition for my rendition, with voices, of the story of The Three Bears. I was quite proud. And ate the whole messy melting bunny at the next recess. Anyway, here is what I told Laura about Baby Bear’s sink:
Back in the day, sink manufacturers tried to promote a smaller “dental sink”. I think this may have had to do with (1) the fact there generally was only one bathroom and (2) concerns about hygiene and spreading disease.
I think that if you were to find a small sink like this — and if it were matchy-matchy with your main sink — wouldn’t it make a fantastic addition to a period bathroom recreation? A fabulous conversation starter … and hey, useful, too, especially if you only had one bathroom. Readers: Let’s keep an eye out at Re-Store and salvage places to see if we can spot one. John from deabath.com, if you are reading this, I’d love to hear if you ever come across these.
Now that I have made a big deal about actually reading my piles and piles and piles of midcentury marketing materials, I must qualify by saying that this explanation of dental sinks doesn’t come from something definitive that I found all buried away. (I remembered them as a rare feature once I started spotting other oddities in my new wave of research.) But, I did see them called ‘dental sinks’ in the brochure that featured this photo. And the rest of the stuff in my hypotheses I’ve read about some place. I think that 2011 will be the year I really start taking notes and recording my sources, I guess.
Update: Dental sinks have “flushing rims”:
Reader Jocelyn sent me a link to this 1955 American Standard advertisement — it promotes the dental lavatory (aka, sink) as helping to relieving bathroom traffic congestion in the morning. This was the era of one-bathroom households, remember. Morever: Note that the ad says the dental sink has a flushing rim. Now I really need one of these! Thanks, Jocelyn!
…And more — Deabath.com sent a link to this vintage Crane dental sink with a flushing rim — only the second they have ever seen! Thanks, deabath.com team, we love you, and not just because you are an advertiser:
Update: Second design of dental sink:
Above: Another design that we spotted! Spotted on page 21 of my 1949 Crane catalog.
Update:
Above: Here’s an American-Standard “Dentaledge” sink with flushing rim, from my 1955 catalog.
Carla says
Ok, looking at this information, I think the builder took the dental sink that was to go next to our master bath sink with chrome legs and stuck it in our powder room (like Laura’s fathers house has) and stretched their fixture supply a bit further by doing so! Ah well, whatever the case, it’s darned cute and we like them both very much and aren’t swapping them out. Built to last and still shiny.
Shane Walp says
Holy Cow! I was just in an antique store last week and found one of these tiny sinks! Wish I had room for it in the Bath 🙁
I also found one of those early ’50s floor heater boxes that hook directly to the gas line….hmm….I have a feeling that will be coming home for the bathroom redo tomorrow…..(Pam will hate that, because it’s GOTTA be dangerous w/it’s own GAS LINE into the bathroom! LOL)
eudora says
You know, people used to fill up the basin of the regular sink and use it to wash their faces, shave, etc. (and make warm water for these tasks when there were two separate faucets for H + C). You wouldn’t necessarily want to do that with people brushing their teeth and spitting, so a dental sink seems perfect. And today we don’t have Christina Crawford standing around with a can of Old Dutch cleanser waiting to scrub everything to a fare-thee-well, now, do we?
Adrian says
I think you hit the nail on the head! It makes so much sense. Although I don’t see a toothbrush holder in the wall… Perhaps the sink was a novelty for little kids?
pam kueber says
I tend to think (1) Hygiene – huge concern over spreading germs back in the day, before there was even a polio vaccine, and (2) making the only bathroom in the house work harder. I don’t think we really saw the proliferation of two-bathroom homes until the 1960s.
Katey says
I DO see a toothbrush holder- its mostly cut off at the edge of the photo, though.
Elizabeth Mary says
Here is what I am thinking — the little sink could be used by one family member to brush their teeth while someone else washed their hands and/or face in the larger one. That would have been a way for more than one person to use the bathroom at once.
Also, I note that there is no mirror over the small sink which should discourage brushing hair, washing the face etc.
They may have been the recusor (sp?) to the double sink so beloved today.
Gavin Hastings says
I think families were much more lavy “communal” back in the day.
Esp. with one bath.
Shane Walp says
My house is lavy communal, because no one will go downstairs to use the half bath. We don’t take showers together tho’, that would be wrong! LOL
Gavin Hastings says
Shane,
My 6 brothers and I, all tossed in one bathrub.
My 6 brothers and I, all crowded around a sink.
My 6 brothers and I, all standing around a toilet.
You don’t see alot of that stuff anymore.
Shane Walp says
Dude! That’s crazy. I’d hate to clean THAT toilet after 6 boys peed in it at once! HA!
Gavin Hastings says
Well, it was more like “in the general area” !
STL Mom says
When I was struggling to toilet-train my son, I asked a friend how she was doing with her son, who was the same age. She explained that he just went into the bathroom whenever his older brothers went. He copied his brothers, and she didn’t have to do anything. Sounded good to me!
Tina says
Funny that Susan mentioned the bidet. I was thinking the same thing… a bidet for your mouth!
The 1980s colonial we’ve lived in for the past 15 years has two sinks in the master bathroom. We’ve become so accustomed to each having our own sink I wonder if my husband and I could ever share again if we ever move to our smaller “dream” home (a mid-century rancher). Maybe this would be a good compromise. 🙂
Shane Walp says
That would be awesome! It would be like a high pressure water fountain, like in the movie Finding Nemo, when the little girl in the dentist’s office breaks the rinse sink and the water squirts all over her face! LOL
Laura Jinkins says
Oh, I’m so excited! I hadn’t had time to go back to the post to see if you answered my question, and you ended up writing a whole blog post about it! 🙂 I feel quite special! And now that I’m looking at this picture more closely, I’m thinking it must be a “dental sink” that is in the downstairs powder room of my dad’s house in New Orleans! It’s a very small sink just like the one above, but white. When he had to remodel the downstairs after the flood following Katrina, he babied that sink like nobody’s business, only to have it slip out of his hands when he was reinstalling it. Fortunately the sink survived, but there’s a ding in the wall and a small bit of porcelain chipped from the upper left corner of the sink. He laughs, saying he tried to get his foot under the sink before it hit the floor, but the sink was just too fast.
Leeann Wright says
In the second floor half bath of my 1949 cape is a dental sink…the only sink. The bath was originally shared by the home owner’s 2 daughters-jack and jill style-so it is not only incredibly tiny, it is hung low as well!!
Abigail Grotke says
Interesting! I will check my health books and decorating books from that era and see if I find any mention of these.
susan says
I would love a dental sink…it makes perfect sense with todays hygiene issues. Alas, I cannot. My bathroom is way too small. I also fear that my mother, who is nuts, would mistake it for a bidet and we’d have to call the fire dept. to remove her umm… nether regions from the sink It would also be just another place for my 14 yr old daughter to comb her hair over…yuk! Maybe I need my own bathroom?