Identify

Can anyone identify the maker of this skillet? Several views, also wondering about the crack. Guess I could use it and hope for seasoning to fill it in, or not?

If you look above the T closely, you'll see "TAIWAN" badly cast.

Shoot, that's a shocker as my aunt had this one and I thought it would have been a good one.

Any idea of the date?

My mother in law has Taiwan pan like that, but they misspelled the bottom of hers so it says "10 1/2 INCH SKLLET". The size of the lettering and the font are otherwise the same. I also remember hers having similarly uneven typesetting. TAIWAN shows up a lot better on hers. What I can see of the handle and the smallish size of the pouring spouts look the same. I'd say hers and your aunt's definitely have enough similarities. Her pan even has those oversized LP record grooves on the cooking surface. Looking at the close-up of the crack I can see the same reddish speckling on the surface hers has. I figured it was the way I seasoned the pan. Now I'm inclined to think it's the iron. She says she got hers in the early 1970's. Hers has a hole going through it near the top of the sidewall opposite the handle. Maybe an air bubble that got trapped when the pan was cast? Because of that hole I contemplated tossing it and getting her a mid-50's American pan but giving the "skllet" back to her became a no-brainer after imagining my wife as a little kid eating breakfast made on that very same pan. Last time I visited her I made my kids (her grandkids) a pizza on that pan. If the crack is far away from the handle and you limit cooking on it to stuff like breads, pancakes, and eggs (nothing deep-fried and nothing that fills the pan with liquid) I'd say it's probably OK to cook on, making it a keeper if it has sentimental value.

Ty, yes, it's sentimental, indeed.

I haven't used it since I discovered the crack, however.

On the sidewall, there are, what you call "LP grooves" (yours on the cooking surface, mine, on the sidewall). I think it's very cool.

The only problem I have with using a cracked pan (aside from liquid leaking out during cooking) is the potential for bacteria in the crack, so I suppose I'll just hang onto it. My mom (aunt's sister) is still with us, and she used that skillet since my aunt died back in the 80s.

Thanks for your thoughts.