Very Large Copper Hull, Switzerland, Late 18th - Early 19th Century

Very large cockerel Copper, brass and wrought iron Switzerland, Rhone Valley or Lake Geneva End of the 18th century - beginning of the 19th around 1800 ----- Total height, thumb included: 42 cm ----- Beautiful and large cockerel with body baluster, entirely mounted with a hammer and assembled in wolf teeth by brazing with brass. Reported bottom, welded in the same way. Collar with rolled edge in cord on iron stiffener; flat-top lid and shell thumb. The beautiful flat handle, forged and riveted, is completed by a movable wrought iron handle. The hull is set on three massive wrought iron feet with riveted plates, the upper rivet of the back foot also serving to fix the handle. Unidentified maker's mark on the bottom (an X) ----- The coquemar, placed directly on the embers of the hearth, served as a reserve of hot water. These beautiful models with a baluster body and a flat roof cap are found in the South of France and, in Switzerland, in the Rhone Valley and on the Lake Geneva area. Roger Verdier cites a copy from the J.-P. Melin collection, very close to ours and bearing a rare maker's mark in Morges (Verdier 1986, p.118 n°91, ill. p.121). Our coquemar is in very good condition. With its 42 cm at the thumb, it is one of the largest examples identified. ----- Bibliography Roger VERDIER, Brassware, copper, brass and bronze objects from the 16th to the 19th century, catalog of the Saint-Nectaire exhibition (01.07 - 05.09.1986), at the author's, Lisieux 1986