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50cm Gaillard stewpot “DD”

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This pan manages to look elegant just filled with firewood.

50cm Gaillard stewpot “DD”

  • Type: Tin-lined stewpot in hammered finish with brass (possibly bronze) handles fitted with three copper rivets
  • French descriptionFaitout étamé et martelé avec des poignées en laiton (ou éventuellement en bronze) munies de trois rivets en cuivre
  • Dimensions: 50cm diameter by 26cm high (19.7 inches by 10.2 inches)
  • Thickness: 3mm at rim
  • Weight: 18444g (40.6 lbs)
  • Stampings: “DD” overlaid on the “GAILLARD PARIS” oval stamp
  • Maker and age estimate: Gaillard; 1940s-1960s
  • Source: lazylou2002

Our family room is the cosy heart of our house where we spend most of our time, and when I decided to get a firewood holder I wanted something made of copper. I envisioned something that was beautiful but also useful so that people didn’t think it was just decorative. It needed to withstand logs tumbling in and out, so it had to be sturdily made. And as much as I love the brilliant scintillation of light off the polished surface of a well-tended copper pot, I knew I didn’t want a fancy showpiece here.

Every time I see this pot doing its job, it makes me smile.

This is the unicorn of big copper pots: huge, in fantastic structural shape, thick, stamped with a mark of impeccable provenance, flat-bottomed, and unrestored. I paid a decent price for it, but pound-for-pound it is the least expensive copper piece in my entire collection. I absolutely adore it.

It’s unrestored and doesn’t need it.

The handles are tarnished brass.

The rivets are big, as would be necessary for a pot this size, and deformed by hammering. I have other Gaillard pieces with rivets like this that look as though they’d been mashed firmly into place.

It’s stamped in two places with the initials “DD”, one stamp overlaid on an oval Gaillard mark.

50cm Gaillard stewpot “DD”

I am sure the Messieurs Gaillard are looking down from the great chaudronnerie in the sky with approval. It’s tempting to put copper on a shelf — literally and figuratively — to avoid spoiling it with actual use, but I think the people who designed and made these things were not so sentimental. These pots want to work, and while this one’s job is not in the kitchen, I am still so happy to have this one serving me every day.

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