1695 Escutcheon plate blues

When Mr. Miracle (his real name) installed the handsome replacement faucets and drain in the bath off my office last spring, I noticed that there was always a little pool of water sitting on the drain. Rather than ruin the finish or corrode the marble, I'd mop it up after each use. Finally, I said to architect-husband, "That sink drain is installed incorrectly because there's always about a teaspoon of water that just sits there." That's when I heard about escutcheon plates. That's the trim piece you see around faucets and drains. Actually, he wasn't positive they are called that when trimming out the drain, but that's what he calls them, and he's been supporting us as an architect for all these years and has spec'd many a bathroom. "They've been standardized and now instead of sloping inward, they are raised slightly higher than the drain hole." Another case of early obsolescence I think, because water will eventually discolor or erode the pretty finish on my new escutcheon plate. I Googled this problem (discovering I didn't know how to spell it and neither did about 12 other people), but only found one diagram of an escutcheon plate for a drain, and sure enough, it appeared to be raised. We are overbathroomed in this house, and have three other bathroom sinks, all with escutcheon plates that slope down, but all have lost their finish and are sort of ugly, being rather old. Not that old is ugly, necessarily, but old escutcheon plates, although designed correctly, do show their age.



This photo, which barely shows the escutcheon plate (are we clear now on how to spell this word?) does show another disaster. A few days ago I was blogging away and I heard glass break. I had no glass on my desk, so I got up and looked in the bathroom. I had some hand lotion and cologne bottles sitting on a small glass plate so they didn't get damp from the counter top. If you look closely, you can see the plate split in two, all by itself. I was so upset. This plate is actually a relish dish given to my parents as a wedding gift in 1934. It's probably the only memento I have of that day so important in my family's life. I have a few glass and china objects that were my mother's, but because they married during the Depression years, they really had very few gifts. It always graced the table on holidays, even though it was very small, and Mom gave it to me about 10 years before she died. I didn't cause it to break (seems to have had a weak spot along the line of the etched celery), but I feel I've not been a good steward for something that had a useful life for 70 years.