Any question answered...

With an old fashioned ceramic wash-basin and pedastal, is the pedestal meant to be weight bearing, or just to hide the pipes?

I have two basin brackets that I am in the process of putting on the wall, and need to work out if the basin should be ~1cm above the pedestal, or resting on it.

a: yes it's loadbearing to a certain extent, you still need to fix the basin to the wall.
b: why are you even installing sanitaryware on an unfinished surface?