Cookware · Erie, PA & Sidney, OH · 1865-1957
Griswold & Wagner Cast Iron
A hundred-year-old skillet that cooks better than anything new on the shelf: read the bottom like a coin and it tells you its price.
Questions collectors ask
Does a clear ring prove that a cast-iron pan has no cracks?
No. Tone changes with thickness and seasoning. Inspect both sides in bright light, especially the sidewall, rim, handle junction, and heat ring.
Does a Griswold logo determine value by itself?
No. Logo style, place name, pattern number, size, casting, condition, and demand work together. A desirable logo does not rescue a warped or cracked pan.
How should skillet warp be checked before buying?
Set the clean pan on a known-flat surface and press around the rim and handle. Look for rocking, spinning, or a bowed center, then disclose the result.
Matthew Griswold started casting hardware in Erie, Pennsylvania in 1865; the Wagner brothers set up in Sidney, Ohio in 1891. For the better part of a century these two foundries armed the American kitchen, and they did it with a level of finish that vanished from the industry: cast thin for even heat, then machined and polished until the cooking surface felt like glass. Pick one up next to a modern pebbly-surfaced pan and your hand understands the collector market instantly.
Act IRead the bottom like a coin
Griswold changed its trademark every decade or two, which turned every pan bottom into a date stamp. "ERIE" script alone puts a pan around the 1880s-1900s. The italic "slant" Griswold logo runs to the mid-1910s. The big block-letter logo in a double cross runs through the 1930s. The small block logo means 1939 onward. Those are still excellent pans, but the collector heat is in the earlier marks. A raised "gate mark" scar across the bottom is older than all of it: mid-1800s casting technology, before brands.
Act IITeflon kills the foundries
Nonstick coatings and cheap imports arrived in the 1950s, and heritage finishing couldn't compete on price. Griswold sold in 1957 after ninety-two years; the brand names shuffled between owners until both Griswold and Wagner marks ended up stamped on ordinary pans. That's why era matters more than name: a 1990s "Wagner's 1891 Original" is a $10 user, while a slant-logo Griswold is a collector piece.
Act IIIThe restoration revival
The last fifteen years flipped the market. Cooking culture rediscovered bare cast iron, and a restoration hobby grew around it: electrolysis tanks and lye baths stripping a century of crud off garage-sale pans to reveal mirror surfaces. Skillets are the volume market; the money climbs with big sizes (#10 and up), matching lids, and odd shapes: dutch ovens, waffle irons, muffin pans. Wagner runs cheaper than Griswold for comparable quality, which makes it the value play.
Early logo eras (ERIE, slant, large block), machined-smooth surfaces, big and odd pieces, matching lids, and pans that sit dead flat.
Serious home cooks, logo-era collectors, restoration hobbyists buying crusty pans to strip, and homestead-kitchen decorators.
Crud is fine. Cracks are fatal. A $5 pan under black grime can be a $75 pan after electrolysis, but no restoration fixes a crack, a wobble, or deep pitting.
Sources: Smithsonian: Griswold frying pan record · Cast Iron Collector: Griswold trademark evolution · Cast Iron Collector: pattern and catalog numbers · Cast Iron Collector: cracks, warp, and ring-test limits
Logo eras date the panERIE script → slant italic Griswold (to mid-1910s) → large block logo in a cross (1920s-30s) → small logo (1939 on). Earlier mark, higher heat. Photo via Wikimedia Commons (Modemac, CC BY-SA 4.0).
Small logo = late eraThe small block logo (1939-1957) means a fine user pan at user prices: don't pay slant-logo money for it. Also learn "Wagner Ware Sidney -O-". Photo via Wikimedia Commons (Modemac, CC BY-SA 4.0).
Beyond skilletsDutch ovens, waffle irons, muffin pans, and matching lids carry premiums: lids especially. Big sizes (#10-#14) outsell the common #6-#8. Photo via Wikimedia Commons (E.W. Modemac, CC BY-SA 3.0).
- Flip it: which logo era? Size number?
- Set it on something flat: a rocking "spinner" is warped.
- Hunt for hairline cracks at the handle and pour spouts.
- Check the cooking surface: smooth is money; deep pitting isn't.
- Heft it: vintage pans run thinner and lighter than modern.
- Crud is fine: it strips. Cracks and wobble don't.
Flat, smooth, uncracked: user pans.
Clean, sits flat, common sizes.
ERIE PA marks, smooth surface, #3-#8.
#10-#14 skillets, dutch ovens with lids, waffle irons.
Comparable quality, softer prices: the value play.
Pre-logo era pieces.
- Any crack, anywhere: no restoration fixes it.
- Warped bottom that rocks or spins on a flat surface.
- Deep pitting across the cooking surface.
- Welded or repaired handles.
- Modern pebbly-surface pans priced as vintage.
Link disclosure: eBay links currently open ordinary sold-search results. If a link becomes commission-earning in the future, it will be clearly identified near the link.
Marker photos show real examples via Wikimedia Commons (credited). Prices reflect eBay sold ranges as of July 2026.