Are these 3 all pre 1900?

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Grandma stopped cooking for the most part in the past few years. She gave me these because she never uses them anymore, but has other stuff that's willed to me.
 
It would be safe to assume they are 19th century. Some makers did continue bottom gating into the 20th century, but, for the most part, it was on large pieces that the cost of re-tooling of patterns would have been prohibitive.
 
I was going to express my doubts that all or any of your griddles can be dated to pre-1900. While the larger and more progressive foundries stopped bottom gating as early as 1880 or even a little before, I have not seen anything about when the smaller or less advanced foundries stopped the bottom gating. Here is a 1928-29 catalog showing a griddle and skillet that appear to be like those known to have bottom gates. I'm not positive that I have not seen these pans with a side gate but they are of a style, especially the narrow lipped skillet, that is commonly found and with bottom gates. Also, those illustrations could be stock ones and not up to date. But I thought this might show the possibility of bottom gated pieces much later than we usually think.
 

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Not sure I understand. How can you tell from the catalog that the griddles sold from it are gated? Also, if the picture is an accurate drawing, the handles are not nearly as curved as the one in the catalog.
 
I can't tell they are bottom gated but most seen that LOOK like those illustrations are bottom gated. I didn't mean that your griddles were the same as the one in the catalog but they are all of similar or close ages. There are no definite answers here just as there are not definite dates when bottom gating ended on various pans. No catalogs show the bottom gates or mention that the pans are not bottom gated. Griswold's 1883 catalog does say their wares are side gated but even they did have a few bottom gated pieces. Most of our knowledge is from observation and sharing info among other collectors. Some are very good with seeing things while others read the books and consider them to be the last word.
 
This griddle is nothing but decoration obviously, but grandma (who's 86) says it belonged to her mother. Grandma is positive it's 1800's.

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it looks exactly like the thin walled one you mentioned.
 
I have seen people be positive about an age of a pan yet be wrong. I'd go by what your grandma says though. Chances are great that it's before 1900.
 
Wouldn't matter either way, but I'd like to believe they're over 100 years old and have survived all this time. I'll clean them up soon and see what they really look like, but I know the first one is in really good shape. Too much crud on the others yet to tell.
 
You could have them carbon dated to find the age. Actually, it might be possible to carbon date the iron to see when it was poured but I am not sure about that. Just musing some and wonder, if the seasoning carbon could be original from pre-1900 then it should be carbon datable.
 
John W, I think I have a sister pan to the second one you posted, it looks almost identical to the one I posted in this thread: http://www.castironcollector.com/forum/showthread.php?t=123

While I have several pieces of cast iron, this is by far my favorite pan to use. Very light weight and perfect for a serving of bacon or pancakes for one. Mine was covered in crud, but cleaned up well with oven cleaner and took no time at all to season with all the use it gets.

Enjoy your grandmom's pans! I know I would! :D
 
Interesting thread Ash Nelson. Guess it being made by a local smith is kinda out. I'll ask grandma if she knows any more of the history of these.
 
I assumed that my pan must have been made by a small (perhaps local) foundry, since the age of it's manufacture pre-dates the brand names. I am interested to know more as well. Hopefully she can shed some light on the history of these pans for both of us. :)

And Steve, thanks for sharing that catalog page! It is cool to get a glimpse back in time.
 
I have not counted the number of names on iron cookware that I have come across but it's probably over 200 different names. The early pieces were mostly unmarked but waffle irons, tea kettles and some other pieces often were marked with brand names or makers' names. There were just many more and smaller foundries in the early days and, later, the number of foundries became less while the production of each grew larger until, today, we have ONE maker of cast iron cookware in the US plus, possibly, several very small ones (Finex for example).
 
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