Stone carved out of a block
Natural stone is the largest material group here: marble first, then travertine, with granite, concrete and onyx in smaller numbers. Every one of them was cut and hollowed out of a solid block.
That construction is the product. A carved bowl has no seam and no join, the figure in the stone runs continuously over the outside and down into the basin, and the wall thickness is whatever the carver left. The stone bathtub page describes the same work at a larger scale.
How a vessel size is written
A stone vessel carries two figures, a diameter and a height, which some listings mark with a D and an H. A kitchen sink carries one, and that single number is the cabinet width it was built for.
Those conventions describe different things, and reading one as the other is the commonest mistake on a page this mixed. A 33 inch kitchen sink goes into a 33 inch cabinet. A 16 inch vessel is 16 inches across the bowl and sits on whatever counter is already there. Kitchen sinks covers the cabinet side properly.
A vessel changes the faucet height
A vessel sits on top of the counter, so its rim stands four to six inches higher than the rim of an undermount basin, and the faucet has to clear it.
So a vessel and a standard basin faucet are seldom a working pair. Vessel faucets are taller for exactly this reason, and wall mounted spouts are the other common answer, which makes the faucet part of the same decision as the bowl. Bathroom faucets carries the spout heights.
Each carved piece carries its own figure
Veining and color change through a block of marble or travertine, so two sinks cut from the same block come out close but not identical, and two from different blocks can read as different stones altogether.
The photograph on a listing is one example of what the quarry is producing and the piece that ships is another. That is the ordinary condition of stone, and the marble tile page sets out how the variation is graded, but it carries further on a sink than on a floor: a floor averages a hundred pieces, and a basin is one object somebody looks straight at.
Travertine sinks are filled
Honed and filled is the largest finish group in the stone half and it belongs almost entirely to travertine. Travertine has natural voids running through it, and a bowl that holds water is the one application where leaving them open makes no sense.
So a travertine sink arrives with the voids filled and the surface honed flat, which makes it a different product from the tumbled travertine on a terrace. The travertine tile page explains what filling is.
Onyx and what the light does
A short onyx group belongs to this page, and it is here for one property no other stone offers. Onyx is translucent: light passes through the material and comes out the other side.
That is why an onyx basin is so often lit from below or behind, and why the same bowl reads as two objects with the light on and off. Onyx is also softer and more fragile than marble, which is part of why the group stays small.
Marble, and the question it raises
Marble is the largest stone here and it is a calcite carbonate, which means a household acid dulls the patch it touches. What reaches a basin in a bathroom is water, soap and whatever stands on the counter beside it.
A honed marble carries that outcome better than a polished one, because a change in reflectance shows least on a surface that was never reflective. It is the reason so much of the stone on this page is honed.
The fabricated half
Stainless steel is the second largest material on the page, with ceramic, quartz composite and glass in smaller groups. These are pressed, cast, welded or fired, so every unit repeats exactly and a replacement matches what it replaces.
Undermount, drop in, farmhouse and workstation bowls all sit in this half, and the questions there are gauge, bowl count and cabinet fit. Kitchen sinks is the page that works through them.
Vanity bowls and the cabinet under them
A vanity bowl group sits between the two halves: basins sized for a vanity top, which is a narrower surface than a kitchen counter run and is frequently a separate purchase from the bowl that goes on it.
For the cabinet underneath, single vanities and double vanities cover the widths.
