Washstand

The larger ones, which possessed receptacles for soap dishes, were the predecessors of the modern bathroom wash basin, or sink.

Its direct, but remote, ancestor was the monastic lavabo, ranges of basins of stone, lead or marble fed from a cistern (tank).

[3] Very similar usages obtained in castles and palaces, fixed "lavatories" being constructed in the thickness of the walls for the use of their more important residents.

It was supported upon a tripod; a circular orifice in the top received the basin, and smaller ones were provided for a soap dish and a water-bottle.

Thus a variety of complicated combination washstands and dressing tables were made, and fitted with mirrors and sometimes with writing conveniences and drawers for clothes.

Thomas Sheraton developed astonishing ingenuity in devising a type of furniture which, if we may judge by the large number of examples still existing, must have become highly popular.