Identifying Old Lodge Camp Oven

MikeS.

New member
I come across old Lodge camp ovens from time to time. I picked up a 12" oven this weekend that had almost no markings on it. I could identify it as a Lodge by the shape of the bail mounts. The lid only had a raised "12" on it, which I have seen before on ovens that had stamped (indented) markings on the bottom. This oven only seems to have a raised "12" on the bottom of it as well. It appears to have a pretty good finish on it, except for some rust that I am trying to remove. My question is, when did Lodge start putting the stamped markings on the bottom of their ovens? My guess is they did this in the 1950's or whenever they went to a machine mold. I'm assuming that this oven that I found was before that, possibly in the 1940's or earlier. Any ideas on this?
 
Since there are no pics to view I assume that you have already some research. If you have the RB (The Book of Wagner & Griswold), (Red in color) you can go to p.233 which illustrates many of the early Lodge "Country Hollow Ware" pieces and has circ. dates of when these pieces were made.
BTW. Lodge wasn't the only manufacturer of CI that had raised numbers/letters.
BSR also produced them but the BSR pieces were normally followed with "IN" which would represent the size in inches. Martin Stove and Range also used raised numbering but most of their pieces was preceded by the letters of "No.", except for their Country Skillets.
Hope the info I have given isn't too confusing but CI collecting can get that way and there is always the "exceptions" to anything.
 
Here are some pictures of the oven next to an old Lodge oven that I have. The 12 on the bottom of the oven looks to be set by hand rather than by machine.
 

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Here are some pictures of the oven next to an old Lodge oven that I have. The 12 on the bottom of the oven looks to be set by hand rather than by machine.

Based on my research over the past 5+ years the rusted Camp oven was probably made from the 30's to about the late 40's to 50's. Therefore being older than the seasoned one you have. Not sure when the actual date was that incised numbering was applied to those pieces so maybe someone with more knowledge will chime in on your quest.
 
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