Also 7 casolette, 7–9 cassolet. [a. F. cassolette dim. of cassole, -olle, ‘little pan,’ dim. of casse ‘pan.’ Cat. cassa, It. cazza, fire pan (Florio). Cf. Sp. cazo, cazuela, cazoleta; med.L. caza, cazia, cazola, cazeola. See Diez, Littré and Du Cange.]
1. A vessel in which perfumes are burned.
1657. Tomlinson, Renou’s Disp., 213. Put in a brasen or silver pot which the Vulgar call a cassolet.
1726. Dict. Rust. (ed. 3), s.v. Cassolet, a small Vessel us’d in the Burning of Pastils or other odours.
1834. Beckford, Italy, II. 43. Silver braziers and cassolettes diffusing a very pleasant perfume.
a. 1847. Mrs. Sherwood, Lady of Manor, IV. xxiii. 45. Cassolettes, which, being now lighted up, exhaled all the perfumes of the East.
2. A box for perfumes with a perforated cover to allow of their diffusion.
1851. Sir F. Palgrave, Norm. & Eng., I. 182. Amongst the Great, the garments of the Sainted Princess will be redolent of her boudoir essences and cassolette perfumes.
1884. Health Exhib. Catal., 94/1. Aromatic Ozonized Pocket Cassolette.
