Coppersmith
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Le Chaudronnier | The Coppersmith
The coppersmith from Auvergne ("Chaudronier Auvergnat", 1737 etching and engraving by Anne Claude de Caylus, Wikimedia Commons).
The chaudronnier, or coppersmith, was a manufacturer of cauldrons, who also traded in household utensils. This craftsman worked mainly with copper or sheet-metal objects, embossed or stamped, as well as bronze and cast iron. He worked with red-hot copper, beating it on the anvil.
The coppersmith had a varied clientèle. He was called upon to seal punctures in pierced vessels. He fabricated lanterns, holy water stoups, procession lanterns and censers for the church. In the 19th century and early 20th century, he maintained large saucepans for cheese factories, creameries and sugar manufacturers.
Most of the coppersmith's clients, however, were regular town inhabitants. He was responsible for assembling the heating plates on a stove, mounting the heating pipes, as well as shaping and fixing the insulation sheets below and around the stove. In the 17th and 18th centuries especially, he also made warming pans for beds and braziers used to heat and transport incandescent ash. He was a specialist in repairing bellows.
The coppersmith was one of 7 main occupations in New France relating to metalwork, the others being the locksmith, the blacksmith, the tinsmith, the gunsmith, the edge-tool maker, and the arquebusier.
Known persons who had the occupation of master coppersmith: Louis Coursol, Antoine Fillion, David Giraudeau, Gilles Lauzon, François Lory
Known persons who had the occupation of coppersmith: Pierre Arnal dit Laforge, Antoine Beauvais, Pierre Boutin, François Chaussé, Jacques Delpech, André Flambor, David Giraudeau, André Julien de Vautabon, Gilles Lauzon, Alex McKay, François Mora dit Lorrain, Robert Laporte, Louis Palin dit Dabonville, Antoine Rode, André Rodereau dit Floridor, Robert Vaillancourt
Meet Peter Goebel, a modern-day coppersmith using centuries-old techniques.
Sources:
Jeanne Pomerleau, Métiers ambulants d'autrefois (Montréal, Québec: Guérin, 1990), 247.
Claude Lemay, "Fonctions et métiers délaissés", l'Ancêtre, number 281, volume 34, winter 2008, and number 280, volume 34, winter 2007; electronic edition, Société généalogique de Québec (www.sgq.qc.ca/images/_SGQ/R_LAncetre_plus_libre/ENT-FONCTIONS-METIERS-DELAISSES.pdf).