Mongers of Hingham, with a vast selection of antique roll top baths, toilets, taps, showers and basins, has been restoring antique baths for eighteen years. Sam Coster from Mongers has recently noticed a trend for a black exterior to the ever popular roll top bath. He hopes this new appreciation for black in the bathroom will mean a perfect buyer is just around the corner for a complete black Art Deco bathroom suite he has recently acquired.
 
Sam says "As part of our service we paint the exterior of roll-top baths to a colour of the customer's choice. This is a great indicator of changing fashions in interior design. In the early days we painted many baths in bright colours, maroon and deep blue being the most popular. However, now, most of our baths go out with white or grey finishes, but in the last year we have done a number with black exteriors."
 
"When clearing out a barn recently we came across a complete black Art Deco bathroom suite, which we think is rather desirable and highly unusual. It is a very fine porcelain suite, with cast iron bath and cast iron side panels, made by Johnson Brothers of Hanley, probably in the 1930s. A number of Staffordshire potteries were making black suites in the 1930s but Twyfords catalogues of the 1950s no longer show black as an option."
 
"We have not as yet restored it but the components are all in good usable order. We have also a quantity of black vitrolite glass tiles to go with it. If you fancy a rather decadent and indulgent cool bathroom this might be it, but you may need to fit a water softener if you have hard water or you may be using a lot of limescale remover!"
 
Call Sam at Mongers on 01953 851868 for more details.
 
[For a lovely drawing of a black art deco bathroom suite from American Home magazine, search for '1929 Crane Bathroom - Black!' on the internet.]