Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Cousances Doufeu

I received a great email from Steve B. in Europe indicating that he purchased a Cousances Doufeu for $18 USD at a yard sale and asked me for more information. You may remember that I posted about my Le Creuset Doufeu previously and talked about the theory behind it.


The reader describes his find as an oval piece, 32cm in length in a matte black finish, and marked with the size 16. As you may know, Le Creuset sizes are based on the diameter of a piece in centimetres. For instance a 26cm round oval is a #26 pot, but this does not apply here.


The other unique element of this pot is that the lid seems to act as a moat with a canal around the perimeter rather than a bowl in the more common, perhaps later, doufeus. On the underside of the lid there are raised lines radiating out from the centre to allow for the basting to occur from the lid.


Does anyone out there have ideas as to the age of this piece and why the doufeu design was changed to the current saucer-shaped lids? All I know is that it would be from before the 1950s as it is tagged as a Cousances piece.

Special thanks to Steve B. and best wishes on your plan for boeuf bourguignon!

Linking up to Vintage Thingie Thursday!

3 comments:

  1. Very interesting piece!! Happy VTT!

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  2. I am not familiar with that design or company. In my days, we did not have that nice.

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  3. I recently acquired a larger version of this La Doufeu Cousances at an estate sale. Mine is marked #25 Made in France. Color is dark Orange. Inside of lid and pot are Creme. Same exact well on top of lid and raised ribs on inside. The Orange is different than the Flame Orange. There were two 1960's era Le Creuset smaller pots with the wood handles in Flame Orange sitting next to the Doufeu. The appraiser and several dealers attending the sale told me the Doufeu was older than the Le Creuset ware. First clue was the differance in the Orange color. Second was the name. Third was the unique shape. My guess is we have very early (1930s) ware, possibly available only in France, prior to the Le Creuset era of the 1950s.

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