‘To create something original, you must first fully understand your past’ is an appropriate maxim for a company that first began thirty years ago when founder Tony O’Donnell spotted a gap in the market for restoring baths. Having purchased a house with an old cast iron roll top bath, he tried to find someone to renovate it but couldn’t. So he started Catchpole & Rye by enamelling cast iron baths; then quite quickly began visiting France to buy antique sanitary and bath ware (although many pieces, such as the impressive canopy baths that came from stately homes or castles, were from the UK). These antiques would otherwise have been discarded but he recognised their beauty and history and carefully restored them to their former glory.

These days, although he doesn’t often sell antique pieces, Tony is regarded as a leading expert on the subject and is often called on to offer advice on the restoration of grand country mansions. And it’s this 19th-century sanitary ware that informs all the of timeless cast-iron and bateau baths Catchpole & Rye makes today. The cast-iron bath collection is mostly produced at a foundry in Kent using the same techniques that have been employed for the past 100 years (many of the products are also made from recycled metals). For example, the original Bain de Bateau bath was made over 120 years ago, but the design and methods used to produce the piece remain the same today. The result, whatever the bath design, is a work of both art and engineering.