Vintage or Antique French deep copper bain marie pan - Chocolatier pan

Vintage or Antique French deep copper bain marie pan - Chocolatier pan - Copper confectioners pan - Antique copper patissiers pan - K405

A fantastically unusual find: we have never seen another like it. Was it a simple copper bain marie, an ice cream maker, a chocolate melter for a Chocolatier..?  We will probably never know. However what we do know is that it is French, a heavy double skinned kitchen deep pan or pot with a steel handle.
Probably used more for confectionery, this would have been perfect for melting chocolate to use on the fantastic cakes and pastries or patisseries that the French are famous for.
The pan has a heavy gauge copper outer in a bucket or pail style, constructed from four copper sections with perfectly folded seams. It is this 'pail' that would hold boiling water or ice, with the inner liner sitting in it. This inner section is made of equally heavy-gauge copper made from only two two copper sections, with a rolled top to hold it securely into the outer pan and a perfectly folded base. This item was made by a craftsman, there is no doubt and dates from the early 20th Century. It shows signs of regular use even with a tide mark where the hot water or perhaps the melted ice reached.
A must in every professional kitchen, the bain Marie is used with heat to melt chocolate or make sauces without the ingredients in the inner pan ever reaching boiling point or burning. In early times, they were used with ice to chill sweetened cream towards freezing point while stirring to stop the mixture setting.
A real statement piece, this would make a great and unusual decorative or interior designer's piece - on its own or reinvented as fantastic plant pot or similar. One thing is for sure it is a talking pint.
As you can see, we haven't fully polished the pan, other than a little tickle so as to leave some of the age and patina...................the thick steel handle is attached to copper brackets riveted to the pan with solid old hand made rivets.
This item came from the kitchen of a very old, large property in the city of Richelieu in Central France. The property was being totally gutted to be converted into apartments and we purchased a huge amount of the contents from the contracters.

The dimensions are 9.5" / 245mm high (or 15" / 380mm high with handle up), and the outer bowl has a diameter of 9" / 225mm. The complete two skin pan weighs a hefty 2.4kg or just under 5lb.

Your purchase will be very carefully packaged with recycled materials where possible and despatched via the Irish An Post postal service. 
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