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Any collectors of antique cast iron cookware?

andiesenji

By andiesenji
in Kitchen Consumer

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andiesenji

andiesenji

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I just put my antique (1890s) Griswold (marked "ERIE")  No. 6  flat-bottom kettle on eBay.

 

Item No.  181519680548

 

This smaller size is much harder to find than the No. 8, according to the Griswold "Blue Book"

 

I'm thinning out some of my "heavy metal" that is unwanted by my daughter and decided to offer this kettle today.  I will be adding skillets, Dutch ovens and etc. in the coming weeks. 

 

This particular piece is probably the rarest in my collection and I inherited it from my great grandmother via my grandmother.  It was in constant use when I was a child, was used exclusively for rendering beef suet for use in pastries.  It "lived" on the back of the huge wood/coal kitchen range most of the year but migrated to one of the gas Estate ranges in the summer when it was too warm for the wood stove. 

 

Saying goodbye to a part of my childhood is not easy but I hope to pass it on to someone who values it as much as I have.

  • Like 7

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

Martin Fisher

Martin Fisher

Posted
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Very nice Andie, I wish I had room for it.

 

Do you happen to have any Griswold 9" No. 43  Chef Skillets?

~Martin :)

I just don't want to look back and think "I could have eaten that."

Unsupervised, rebellious, radical agrarian experimenter, minimalist penny-pincher, and adventurous cook. Crotchety, cantankerous, terse curmudgeon, non-conformist, and contrarian who questions everything!

The best thing about a vegetable garden is all the meat you can hunt and trap out of it!

 

andiesenji

andiesenji

Posted
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Posted

Very nice Andie, I wish I had room for it.

 

Do you happen to have any Griswold 9" No. 43  Chef Skillets?

I'll have to look.  I have a bunch of Griswold skillets, including some early "ERIE" skillets but I don't think any are "Chef" skillets.

I do have the Griswold Chicken Fryer, two skillets, one deep, one regular that are "hinged" together while in use. 

  • Like 1

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

lindag

lindag

Posted
Posted

"I'm thinning out some of my "heavy metal" that is unwanted by my daughter and decided to offer this kettle today.  I will be adding skillets, Dutch ovens and etc. in the coming weeks."

How do you manage to store all your collections? I have a big house but it is already bulging!

andiesenji

andiesenji

Posted
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Posted

Industrial shelving and a storage building.

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

andiesenji

andiesenji

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Next up will be this cast iron Griswold (slant ERIE logo) nickle-plated #8 skillet.

Oddly enough, the plated skillets are not as pricy as the bare cast iron of the same era -1906-1912.

It is officially an antique - more than 100 years old.

 

However this one is in remarkable condition.  I include a photo of one (later 1920 era) that shows the typical wear seen on most of the plated skillets.  From using metal utensils. 

Mine was inherited and it was not used all that much because this size No. 8  was much too small for the meals prepared in my grandparent's kitchen - there were  never less than 8 adults living in the house and usually more, plus children.  Also servants.  There was also the farm vet - until he married and moved into one of the "bungalows" in 1947. 

I was lucky to get this.  I virtually had to "steal" it from my mother in one of my visits home in the mid-1960s.  She never used it either.

 

GR.Erie Plated 8 SLANT1.JPG

GR.Erie Plated 8 SLANT.JPG

 

Gris Plated 8 Block poor cond.JPG

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

andiesenji

andiesenji

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted

Very nice Andie, I wish I had room for it.

 

Do you happen to have any Griswold 9" No. 43  Chef Skillets?

I just went through my Griswold/Wagner "Blue Book" and found the "Chef's skillet" with curved which was not produced until the 1960s.

My collection does not include anything later than 1950 - most much earlier.

  • Like 1

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

Smithy

Smithy

Posted
Posted

Does the nickel plating affect the cooking properties of the pan, or is it only a cosmetic feature? It's certainly pretty.

Nancy Smith, aka "Smithy"
Host, eG Forums - nsmith@egstaff.org

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"Every day should be filled with something delicious, because life is too short not to spoil yourself. " -- Ling (with permission)
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Martin Fisher

Martin Fisher

Posted
Posted

I just went through my Griswold/Wagner "Blue Book" and found the "Chef's skillet" with curved which was not produced until the 1960s.

My collection does not include anything later than 1950 - most much earlier.

 

 

Yeah, they're certainly not real old, but a great design.

 

There's one currently on eBay.....

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Griswold-Cast-Iron-CHEF-skillet-smooth-bottom-43-unseasoned-handle-No-Reserve-/261585866931?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3ce7bb90b3

~Martin :)

I just don't want to look back and think "I could have eaten that."

Unsupervised, rebellious, radical agrarian experimenter, minimalist penny-pincher, and adventurous cook. Crotchety, cantankerous, terse curmudgeon, non-conformist, and contrarian who questions everything!

The best thing about a vegetable garden is all the meat you can hunt and trap out of it!

 

andiesenji

andiesenji

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted

Does the nickel plating affect the cooking properties of the pan, or is it only a cosmetic feature? It's certainly pretty.

Back in the day - shortly after the turn of the last century - there was a distinct shift from hired cooks to the woman of the house actually doing the family cooking (usually assisted by one or more servants) and there was a desire for more "attractive" cooking utensils in households where copper (even then expensive) was not considered affordable.

Griswold began offering these plated items - skillets, griddles and etc., and also marketed them for being "healthier" for cooking acidic foods.

The fact is that just as much metal leached into the food but it didn't impart the "iron" flavor that went with the bare metal.

 

Griswold also offered enameled products at various times and of different colors - often difficult to identify if there was no additional imprint because the enameling filled and covered the incised logos on the bottoms of the cookware. 

  • Like 1

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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