Vintage 1880s Barron & Wilson Copper Bain Marie

Product Description

An extraordinary survivor of the Victorian English kitchen, this monumental copper bain marie by Barron & Wilson is among the finest pieces of antique cookware we have sourced. Made in England circa 1880, the remarkably complete set includes an XL copper roasting pan with removable liner, eight graduated lidded saucepans, and a small double boiler designed for melting chocolate, preparing custards, or tending delicate sauces over gentle heat.

The heavy copper vessels are beautifully made with steel handles, each pierced at the end for hanging from the batterie de cuisine of a working kitchen. Brass knobs crown the fitted lids, their warm color particularly handsome against the polished copper. Barron & Wilson was a respected London maker of professional copper cookware during the Victorian period, with surviving pieces stamped from its premises at 436 Strand.

Most remarkable is the condition. The set has been professionally retinned in England using the traditional hand-wiped method, an old tinsmithing technique that leaves the interiors with the softly worked surface characteristic of hand-applied tin. Rather than existing solely as a piece of nineteenth-century kitchen history, these substantial pans have been restored for another generation of cooking.
Rare for its scale, completeness, maker, and exceptional craftsmanship, this is the sort of copper batterie that would once have belonged in a serious English kitchen, with each graduated pan made for a particular task and every piece designed to work hard, hang beautifully, and endure.