Bassett-Lowke Nuways Sink Restoration

I bought this sink a while ago.

They don’t come up for sale very often and are usually quite expensive when they do. This one was a bit cheaper because the taps had broken off and attempts to stick them back on had left the ‘tiled’ splashback in quite a mess. However, the good news was that the broken-off original taps came with it so I knew I’d be able to restore it. Today I finally got around to it.

I started by cleaning off the rock-hard residue of epoxy resin, or whatever it was that had been used in past attempts to reattach the taps. I used a sturdy scalpel and tried to avoid too much damage to the enamel paint, however, some damage was inevitable and would have to be touched up later. I also cleaned some bits of residue off the taps with a small file.

Next, I helped my husband to solder the taps to the piece - I held the taps in place with tweezers while he did the tricky soldering bit! Because the taps are made of white metal, it was important to use a low-temperature soldering iron and low-temperature solder to avoid melting them!!

The original plug and most of the chain were missing when I bought the sink. The short piece of chain that remained was extremely fine so I used the finest piece in my stash of jewellery findings. It was a little chunkier but didn’t look out of place so I attached a length of it to the tiny loop on the splashback.  

I then had a huge stroke of luck when, there in my button box was the perfect little metal stud to use as a plug. I glued the end of the chain to the stud with a drop of clear Gorilla glue.

It sits perfectly in the plug hole.

Next, I touched up the paintwork, just enough to hide the damage. It’s not perfect but I’d rather that than have the piece look over-restored.

Added 18th April, 2020: After I posted this blog yesterday, I realised the sink might be missing some wooden draining boards. The catalogue picture of the sink shows them, but I’ve only seen two actual sinks and one was with and one without so I wasn’t sure and decided to make them removable. [NOTE: the original did have removable draining boards as confirmed in the catalogue description which I’d completely missed! - see comment from Jenny below.]

In any event, I decided to go for it and made some from a piece of old wood I had. I’ve only attached them with tacky wax so as not to cause any damage to the piece.

I’m very pleased with the final result and it’s great to have a complete-looking sink. Here it is in its new home in the kitchen bay of my G&J Lines No. 33/‘Half-size Kits Coty’ (c1909-10).

More information about Bassett-Lowke Nuways dolls’ house furniture can be found on the Brighton Toy Museum website here and my article in the Dolls' Houses Past and Present online magazine here.

Until next time,
Zoe