Cassotte

A cassotte in Charentes, or even coussotte , also called couade in Corrèze and more largely in the the Limousin, lo couado in the Cantal, or even canole in the Dordogne, is a Récipient sometimes called Louche with water. With the difference in the latter, the cassotte has a tubular handle of conical form. It was used for example for to wash the hands with water directly drawn from a bucket.

The installation of running water relegated this ustensil among antiquities and the word itself falls in disuse.

Origin and description

The equivocal with water preceded the cassotte and is known since antiquity. She was invented both in Occident and in the East. A bronze ladle is recorded with the museum of the province of the Hubei, Wuhan. It is dated from the period of the Royaumes combatants (475-221 before J. - C.). However, the exposed ladle does not have a tubular handle which makes it possible to make leave water the bowl of the ladle. The handle is full, of form similar to that presented on the site of the museum of ethnography of Geneva.

Then, the ingeniousness made create the cassotte , with its tubular characteristic. To the XVIII, thanks to the inventories carried out in castles in 1787, it is established that cassottes were out of wood or red Cuivre galvanized. Others were out of terra cotta, Laiton, Tinplate and the last were manufactured in plastic.

Same manner, it is established that the couades were manufactured with wood of Noyer or Châtaignier, wood which does not fear water.

The cassotte was spread in the area of Charentes before the XX century when it became a ustensil of Hygiène.

But it appears difficult to go back the period to its appearance, necessarily before the XVIII.

The ones describe this ustensil like a vase of wood or birch bark , others like a pan with a hollowed out handle very reduced to the end.

the cassotte resembles a bowl to which a fine tube and Conique, more length that the diameter of a bucket, was fixed on a side. One fills the bowl then one poses it across the bucket. When the small container is empty, one can the replonger in the bucket to fill it and continue…

More direct is this description which in few words presents the object and its use: " the “cassotte” or “couade” (pipe pan) to save the eau."

After the cassotte and its bucket, there were piping and the Robinet.

The word cassotte

A priori , it would seem that the word cassotte is typical of Charentes and rather regional use. It is used sometimes to indicate the cups of the water mills or the small water boilings.

For the etymology, in Greek, the word kuathos means “vase to draw” and the proximity of casso in occitan, which means “poêlon” and gave pan and cassoulet , can make think that the word is of this area… With the idea of large spoon , the continuous occitan to bring water to this mill and the Latin is not lost for as much. It remains that the cassotte is more in Charente than elsewhere.

A not very probable version on the origin of the word is provided by the site of Pascal Baudouin, however rich on cassottes, which quote the remarks of “Mr. Bobe transmitted by Mr. Salvini for insertion to the bulletin of the company of the antique dealers of the West of 1st and 2nd quarter 1949, page 16 ”. “The true name of the ustensil in question is secote or secotte (...) This name of secote seems to be applied to any object which dropped water from top, in particular (...) with the small mills established on their course (...) one called them mills with secotes. ” It is not very probable that secotte with one or two “ T ” was a name to indicate this ustensil. This quotation appears to be more one joke of schoolkids that a quotation of expert scientists. Indeed, secotte is a métaplasme of Cosette . More seriously, Marcel Lachiver, prize winner of the French Academy, author of the Dictionary of the rural world - the words of last the , mentions the word cassotte like dating from the XVIII° century.

The word couade is rather typical of Corrèze. In Portugal, the word coado indicates an evacuation of sink.

Name coussotte , also indicates several things:

*une evacuation of sink;

*dans the expression wheel with coussottes , would correspond rather to these cups fixed on the tree of a Moulin at water.

The word canole also indicated the object in question and the standard evacuation in the same way than that already announced.

Uses

To go with a Bucket - a pail or a seilleau (bucket out of wooden) - to the well to seek water, then to pose the bucket on the sink. To take the cassotte by its tubular handle, to fill the cassotte of water, to place the ustensil balances some on the edges of the bucket: water runs immediately, as a net which would leave a Robinet. Indissociable of a container of the bucket type, the cassotte was thus placed on a sink out of stone or the curbstone of a well for:

• to make its toilet with the cassotte;

• to wash the hands with the filament of water of the cassotte;
• to serve a little water by using only the cassotte like large ladle;
• to refresh itself: to drink with the cassotte…

In other areas, the ustensil had a kind of equivalent, like the Puisette, the Aiguière, but more precisely the fountains coppers in Auvergne of it, which were sophisticated however much…

At all events, in Charente, the ustensil crossed until the XX century and rendered service in houses until less end of the year 80.

Places, couade and cassotte

The commune of Troche in Corrèze is called in the canton Troche-les-Couades , certainly because one of the last craftsmen to manufacture couades remained in Troche.

the cassotte in the borough of the commune of Nieuil in Charente (16) was a long time, after the closing of the grocer and the Boulangerie, only the Commerce of this common.

small the cassotte is a place called beside the town of Cognac, in the Saintonge, in Charente (16).

Château mill of Cassotte is the name of a wine which was given to a wine of the area of Bordeaux

Charente-native riddle

• Question: Who goes up on larger pissing?

• Answer : (Will have guessed it to You, of course, it is…) the cassotte…

Various and references

References