Antique Washstands between £0 and £0
A washstand is bedroom furniture made to carry a jug and basin for washing, from small Georgian corner frames to marble-topped Victorian cupboards.
What Is A Washstand?
The heading covers two quite different objects. One is the small open Georgian frame or corner stand in mahogany, made to hold a ewer and basin. The other is the larger Victorian and Edwardian cupboard stand with a marble slab on top and, on some, an upstand set with glazed tiles.
Mahogany dominates the titles, named in more of them than pine, walnut, oak and ash together. Marble comes next, which makes the slab top the most-advertised feature after the timber. The single most likely thing to meet is a Victorian mahogany washstand with a marble top; behind it sits the Georgian mahogany corner stand, which forms a larger share of current stock than of everything sold.
Dates run from 1750 to 1920, though the weight of the evidence sits in roughly 1800 to 1920. Victorian is much the largest group, then a vague nineteenth century label, then Edwardian, Georgian and Regency. Many pieces described as Georgian carry a dealer date of about 1800 to 1830 rather than an eighteenth-century one.
Smaller strands run alongside. Country pine, stripped or painted, is a recurring note. Arts and Crafts and Aesthetic examples, usually oak or ash, form a small but distinct group. French is the largest of the named foreign origins. Because piped bathrooms made the form redundant, a sizeable minority are sold for use as side, hall or bedside furniture, and the titles say so.
Where The Range Splits
Timber sets the floor and the ceiling. Plain pine and stripped country stands sit at the bottom, along with small Georgian mahogany corner stands. Figured walnut, satinwood, satin birch and inlaid mahogany sit at the other end, and inlay, marquetry and boxwood stringing lift a piece well clear of the plain carcase it would otherwise be.
Surface counts for a lot on the humbler timbers. Original painted decoration pushes pine and Regency examples upward, and titles that specify original paint rather than a later finish cluster higher in the range. Faux bamboo turning appears on painted and pine stands.
Number and name do the rest. Pairs and near-pairs of matching stands, and the three- and six-piece bedroom suites that include one, reach the top of the range. So do the handful of pieces carrying a workshop stamp or a firm attribution, and the campaign and military stands with brass mounts. The highest point of all is mahogany with an eighteenth-century date and a stamp.
Retail Price Guide 2026
Typical UK retail prices for washstands between £0 and £0, calculated from the Sellingantiques database of over a million retail prices indexed since 2003. This retail price guide relies exclusively on Sellingantiques data; no external sources or auction records are used, so the figures do not describe the wider market.
The top sale of the last year on Sellingantiques was a marble-top washstand, in May 2026.
The Antique Washstands between £0 and £0 Glossary
- Marble top
- A stone slab laid over the carcase, named in 90 titles and the commonest feature advertised after the timber itself.
- Corner washstand
- Triangular stand made to sit in the angle of a room, in 47 titles and usually paired with mahogany and a Georgian or Regency date.
- Tile back
- The upstand behind the top set with glazed tiles, found on Victorian and Edwardian cupboard forms.
- Gallery back
- A raised timber or marble ledge at the rear, there to catch splashes from the basin.
- Bow front
- A convex curved front, mostly seen on the Georgian corner form.
- Duchess washstand
- A larger Victorian form named in eight titles, usually mahogany with a marble top.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many washstands come up in a year?
About 54 are listed on Sellingantiques in a year, and 124 different dealers have handled one.
That spread means it is a form passing across a very wide bench rather than the speciality of a few dealers.
What are washstands used for now?
Piped bathrooms made the original job redundant, so they survive repurposed. Titles say so plainly: 44 contain the word table, and dealers describe them as side or hall tables.
Others are sold as bedside or night stands, and 15 titles pair washstand with dressing table.
Which timbers turn up most?
Mahogany leads by a distance, named in more titles than pine, walnut, oak and ash combined. Pine follows, then walnut and oak.
At the lighter end, satinwood and satin birch appear on Victorian and Edwardian examples, and ash turns up on Arts and Crafts work.
Are corner washstands common?
The corner form accounts for 47 titles, a substantial minority, and 26 of those pair it with mahogany.
They carry Georgian or Regency dates almost every time, and some have a bow front. They also make up a larger share of stock currently listed than of the archive as a whole.
Do any unusual washstands appear?
Odd forms surface once each. A ships teak combined washstand table, a forged iron stand, a cast iron marble-top stand and an apprentice-piece bamboo washstand have all been listed.
A folding corner stand in satinwood and a Georgian fold-away washstand round out the list. Campaign and military examples appear a handful of times, round basin stands on triform legs among them.
Were washstands made outside Britain?
French is the largest named foreign origin, appearing in 21 titles.
Beyond that the named origins are scarce: Irish, English, Glasgow School and a single Biedermeier example.