Earliest Griswold cast iron cookware?

Seems like it should be me asking you, instead of the other way around. :icon_scratchchin: I've always assumed ~ 1880. That's when the 1st series Erie skillets are dated from. 1880 is also the year of the earliest Griswold patent I know of, a Selden & Griswold button hinge waffle iron.

Then there is page 10 of the blue book, which shows an ad from a 1954 high school yearbook, titled "Griswold marks 89 years of progress". 1954 - 89 = 1865. The ad describes and shows "our original cast-iron ware set", containing, among other implements, a toaster, long-handled waffle iron, a large pot, a long-handled skillet, and a broiler, all for use over a open fire or on a hearth.
 
You're too easy Doug. You pretty much agree with me at c.1880. Blue book, p. 85 shows two Selden & Griswold waffle irons, the first with PAT. APPL'D FOR and the next with PAT'D JUNE 29, 1880. The patent application was filed March 31, 1880 so the first iron shown on p.85 post dates that date. I often feel that a waffle iron may have been the first Griswold piece of cast iron cookware. Waffle irons were popular, common much earlier, and many homes must have used them. A tea kettle may have been an earlier piece but will we ever know. I would have to guess c.1880, maybe 1879 as the first Griswold cookware.

As for the "our original cast-iron ware set" I knew the purchaser of that set who had the set at a WAGS convention years ago and it was said that those pieces were NOT made by Griswold but were collected by them to illustrate what iron cookware had looked like before Griswold got into the business. I have no doubt that none were made by Griswold. In spite of the sentence "OUR….." there is not a single piece nor a piece with any feature that resembles any known piece of Griswold cast iron cookware.

Who else wants to take a stab at the earliest piece of Griswold cast iron cookware? I want to know, not have to take an educated guess.
 
I would have to agree that if Griswold or its predecessor had made cookware such as that shown in the ad pre-1880, they'd have likely put their name or mark on it somehow, and there'd be pieces surviving we'd have seen or known about.
 
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