Barware
Flatware
Cookware
Counter
Cupboard
Stove
Table
Textiles
AD
X
Antique and Vintage Griswold Cookware
We are a part of eBay Affiliate Network, and if you make a purchase through the links on our site we earn affiliate commission.
For many cooks, the perfect pan for frying up a mess of pork chops, a rasher of bacon, or half a dozen scrambled eggs is an old cast-iron skillet. In particular, choosy cooks look for vintage skillets made by the Griswold Manufacturing Company of...
For many cooks, the perfect pan for frying up a mess of pork chops, a rasher of bacon, or half a dozen scrambled eggs is an old cast-iron skillet. In particular, choosy cooks look for vintage skillets made by the Griswold Manufacturing Company of Erie, Pennsylvania. The best Griswold skillets for cooking, as well as for collecting, were produced from the late 19th century until the beginning of World War II. If you plan to cook with your skillet, don’t worry too much about the design of the Griswold logos on the bottom of the pan, which can greatly affect the price, and focus instead on the pan’s cooking surface, which should be jet black and smooth as silk.
One of the most respected cookware manufacturers in U.S. history, Griswold Manufacturing Company was founded in 1865 as Seldon-Griswold Manufacturing Company by a scion of Connecticut politics named Matthew Griswold and his Pennsylvania cousins Samuel and J.C. Seldon. By 1868, Seldon & Griswold was producing cast-iron hardware products for the home, from door hinges and stove dampers to waffle irons and spittoons. Skillets, the cast-iron cookware for which Griswold would become most famous, were not added to the company’s product list until the early 1870s. These earliest skillets were stamped with the word ERIE on the bottom, and were lighter than the cast-iron skillets Griswold would make decades later, which makes them especially prized by cooks today as they are easier to handle.
In 1874, Griswold began to combine its stamped ERIE brand on the bottom of its pans with a raised decoration of a spider laying in wait in its web, the word ERIE repeated on the arachnid’s back. These spiderweb skillets were only produced until 1905, which makes them rare compared to skillets bearing the Griswold cross-and-circles logos that followed in 1897. In addition, the fact that the design was raised rather than stamped makes the task of finding one in good condition all the more difficult—a raised design on the bottom of a cooking pan is obviously going to wear down from contact with hard stovetop grates.
During this spiderweb-skillet era, in 1884, another logo was tried out. Instead of a spider in its web, the bottom of the skillets featured the word ERIE within a horizontal diamond, surrounded by the words “Griswold’s Extra Finished Ware” above and below. That same year, Matthew Griswold bought out his cousins, only to have his Erie factory catch fire in 1885. The damage was significant enough to require the factory to be rebuilt, which it was in 1887, which is when Matthew Griswold finally renamed his firm Griswold Manufacturing Co.
As already mentioned, the cross-and-circles logos arrived in 1897, using a slanted font until 1929 and a block font thereafter. But logos were not the only indicators on the bottoms of Griswold skillets. Some skillets were clad with a raised ring of cast iron around the outer bottom edge of the pan. Known as a smoke ring or heat ring, this added circle of cast iron was meant to get the bottom of the pan off the hot surface of a stovetop so that heat would be distributed across the bottom of the pan evenly. Skillets and other examples of Griswold cookware were also stamped with single numerals indicating the pan’s size, and a second number, usually in the hundreds, that was often appended by a capital letter to indicate the pan’s style.
Of course, skillets were not Griswold's only product. In the late 19th century, the company was also producing coffee roasters and grinders, mail boxes, skillet-shaped ashtrays, waffle irons, dutch ovens, cake molds, nut crackers, muffin pans, wheat- and corn-stick pans, stoves, tea kettles, trivets, and sad irons, one of which featured a nickel-plated "Cold Safety" handle that stayed cool to the touch thanks to a "thick piece of asbestos between the iron and the cap."
Continue readingFor many cooks, the perfect pan for frying up a mess of pork chops, a rasher of bacon, or half a dozen scrambled eggs is an old cast-iron skillet. In particular, choosy cooks look for vintage skillets made by the Griswold Manufacturing Company of Erie, Pennsylvania. The best Griswold skillets for cooking, as well as for collecting, were produced from the late 19th century until the beginning of World War II. If you plan to cook with your skillet, don’t worry too much about the design of the Griswold logos on the bottom of the pan, which can greatly affect the price, and focus instead on the pan’s cooking surface, which should be jet black and smooth as silk.
One of the most respected cookware manufacturers in U.S. history, Griswold Manufacturing Company was founded in 1865 as Seldon-Griswold Manufacturing Company by a scion of Connecticut politics named Matthew Griswold and his Pennsylvania cousins Samuel and J.C. Seldon. By 1868, Seldon & Griswold was producing cast-iron hardware products for the home, from door hinges and stove dampers to waffle irons and spittoons. Skillets, the cast-iron cookware for which Griswold would become most famous, were not added to the company’s product list until the early 1870s. These earliest skillets were stamped with the word ERIE on the bottom, and were lighter than the cast-iron skillets Griswold would make decades later, which makes them especially prized by cooks today as they are easier to handle.
In 1874, Griswold began to combine its stamped ERIE brand on the bottom of its pans with a raised decoration of a spider laying in wait in its web, the word ERIE repeated on the arachnid’s back. These spiderweb skillets were only produced until 1905, which makes them rare compared to skillets bearing the Griswold cross-and-circles logos that followed in 1897. In addition, the fact that the design was raised rather than stamped makes the task of finding one in good condition all the more difficult—a raised design on the...
For many cooks, the perfect pan for frying up a mess of pork chops, a rasher of bacon, or half a dozen scrambled eggs is an old cast-iron skillet. In particular, choosy cooks look for vintage skillets made by the Griswold Manufacturing Company of Erie, Pennsylvania. The best Griswold skillets for cooking, as well as for collecting, were produced from the late 19th century until the beginning of World War II. If you plan to cook with your skillet, don’t worry too much about the design of the Griswold logos on the bottom of the pan, which can greatly affect the price, and focus instead on the pan’s cooking surface, which should be jet black and smooth as silk.
One of the most respected cookware manufacturers in U.S. history, Griswold Manufacturing Company was founded in 1865 as Seldon-Griswold Manufacturing Company by a scion of Connecticut politics named Matthew Griswold and his Pennsylvania cousins Samuel and J.C. Seldon. By 1868, Seldon & Griswold was producing cast-iron hardware products for the home, from door hinges and stove dampers to waffle irons and spittoons. Skillets, the cast-iron cookware for which Griswold would become most famous, were not added to the company’s product list until the early 1870s. These earliest skillets were stamped with the word ERIE on the bottom, and were lighter than the cast-iron skillets Griswold would make decades later, which makes them especially prized by cooks today as they are easier to handle.
In 1874, Griswold began to combine its stamped ERIE brand on the bottom of its pans with a raised decoration of a spider laying in wait in its web, the word ERIE repeated on the arachnid’s back. These spiderweb skillets were only produced until 1905, which makes them rare compared to skillets bearing the Griswold cross-and-circles logos that followed in 1897. In addition, the fact that the design was raised rather than stamped makes the task of finding one in good condition all the more difficult—a raised design on the bottom of a cooking pan is obviously going to wear down from contact with hard stovetop grates.
During this spiderweb-skillet era, in 1884, another logo was tried out. Instead of a spider in its web, the bottom of the skillets featured the word ERIE within a horizontal diamond, surrounded by the words “Griswold’s Extra Finished Ware” above and below. That same year, Matthew Griswold bought out his cousins, only to have his Erie factory catch fire in 1885. The damage was significant enough to require the factory to be rebuilt, which it was in 1887, which is when Matthew Griswold finally renamed his firm Griswold Manufacturing Co.
As already mentioned, the cross-and-circles logos arrived in 1897, using a slanted font until 1929 and a block font thereafter. But logos were not the only indicators on the bottoms of Griswold skillets. Some skillets were clad with a raised ring of cast iron around the outer bottom edge of the pan. Known as a smoke ring or heat ring, this added circle of cast iron was meant to get the bottom of the pan off the hot surface of a stovetop so that heat would be distributed across the bottom of the pan evenly. Skillets and other examples of Griswold cookware were also stamped with single numerals indicating the pan’s size, and a second number, usually in the hundreds, that was often appended by a capital letter to indicate the pan’s style.
Of course, skillets were not Griswold's only product. In the late 19th century, the company was also producing coffee roasters and grinders, mail boxes, skillet-shaped ashtrays, waffle irons, dutch ovens, cake molds, nut crackers, muffin pans, wheat- and corn-stick pans, stoves, tea kettles, trivets, and sad irons, one of which featured a nickel-plated "Cold Safety" handle that stayed cool to the touch thanks to a "thick piece of asbestos between the iron and the cap."
Continue readingNewest
ADX
ADX
AD
X