Coffee Roaster

ChuckP

Member
I picked up this little beauty at a auction about a week ago. From what I can tell, it's all here, right down to the original wooden knob. Does anybody recognize what seems to be some sort of crest or shield on the lid??
https://imgur.com/a/yzk2ScY

This is a pan I found about a month ago that could possibly be made by PPS (Philo Penfiield Stewart). I have to thank D_Madden for that tip. I have to say, they look a lot alike.
https://imgur.com/a/N3uZPad

I welcome any thoughts or comments on what I have here.
 
wow... that is probably 1860-70 time frame, maybe a bit earlier... amazing condition.
if you don't find any answers here, I'm going to suggest a couple of facebook iron groups...
Steve Stephens started a group called 'bottom gate marked cast iron cookware' that has quite a few very knowledgeable people in it.
And a Scott Price has a group (the iron works! collectors of early iron) that is very big on research (if you can catch Jim Fuchs' attention, he probably has a price list or catalog that has your item in it... I'm exaggerating a bit, but Jim has tons of info on early iron foundries and history.

I saw one similar to this on ebay last year or so (of course I can't find any reference to the sold listing now)...
 
Thanks once again for pointing me in the right direction. I'm not a fan of Facebook, but my wife goes on it quite often and joined one of the groups last night. Hopefully, in the next few days she can post this piece up over there and see if anybody can give us some info on it.

I'm not sure if I want to attempt to restore it, leave it as is, or possibly just flip it. If I did restore it, the wooden knob has me a little worried. It is held on with a slotted screw and a square nut. That seems easy enough, but I think I would shed a tear or two if I were to break it somehow.
 
A little follow up to this thread. I'm not one for leaving things alone so I went ahead and removed the knob so I could put roaster in my lye bath. It came off pretty easily so I was thankful for that.
I got 98% of the gunk off, but still have some in the hinge area. Not worried too much about it because I see a E-tank in my future. There is some pitting on the inside, but it could have been a lot worse, considering it's age.
No doubt about who the maker was once it was cleaned.
https://imgur.com/gallery/gYDkA2Y
 
wow... that is just an amazing piece of iron history...

I think I saw that your wife posted it on that facebook group and there were a few people who id'd it right away... (even without being cleaned up) and I think I even saw some comments that some or the people were saying that sperry had some pps molds or something... which might explain your other piece as well... giving you the start of a very impressive sperry collection. There was another coffee roaster like yours posted on that fb page about a year earlier... (not nearly as nice of condition)... but its not a piece that you see very often anywhere.
 
Back
Top