Question about embossed/raised marks

Ok, I have exhausted searches to find this answer.

My understanding is that Maker marks are Engraved. Raised/embossed marks are Molders marks (the person who did the casting).

Is this always true?

I have a skillet that I thought may be unmarked Griswold 755 A but it also has very worn embossed marks. Large raised letters on top mostly worn but end "TOR" or "TON" but doesn't look like the rest said VICTOR. Also has raised numbers 722 along with the engraved 755 A and large number 8.

Not sure yet about posting a photo, don't want to break any rules here and haven't set up a photo service yet. I will try.

Very interesting but thats a Doug or Steve question.

The rest of us are still apprentices.

Let's start with a quick primer on raised vs. incised marks.

Incised marks are always going to be from the pattern. Incised marks on a pan are created by raised areas inside the mold cavity, something not feasible for a molder to reliably accomplish on-the-fly. Maker's marks (referring to the pattern maker), as opposed to molder's marks, will always be incised on a pan, just as they are in the pattern.

Raised marks can be either. A molder presses his marking tool into the inside surface of a sand mold cavity, casts the pan, and the result is a raised mark on the resulting pan. Or the pattern was created with raised markings, which, like the molder's tool impression, resulted in incised areas inside the mold cavity, and subsequently produced raised markings on the pan created. We know the difference in this case because we are confident a raised Griswold button logo on a lid was on the pattern, and we are similarly confident a raised crooked letter Y on the bottom of a Lodge skillet was made by a molder.

The marks on your piece there, however, are neither. They're not really raised, but rather a variation in the way those which are known as ghost marks are manifested. Your pan is from an unmarked Griswold series. But from it we know, and from others seen like it, that the series was produced from altered Griswold economy brand Victor patterns. So, in the case of yours, the markings VICTOR and 722 were covered with some kind of filler material prior to the new markings being incised (in the pattern). But, rather than eroding over time and usage, resulting in shallow, incised ghost marks, the material somehow expanded, resulting in slightly raised ghosts.

That's really an interesting piece. If it was actually cast in the Griswold foundry (I think it was), that is really sloppy work that I would not expect from them, even on an unmarked/economy piece. Ghosting on other pieces are usually much more subtle.

Thank you so much for the explanation of the ghost mark. I have never seen anything like this before and will now know what I'm looking at if I ever find one again.

John, I doubt that pan was made by Griswold. Rather by someone that had acquired a Griswold pattern and, as Doug explains, filled in the original lettering.

The 754, 755, 756 unmarked skillets are generally acknowledged as being Griswold, with substantiation in the BB (or RB, I forget). I'm in the camp that thinks major makers did not sell worn or obsolete patterns, and that other makers' ghosts are from actual pans used to make patterns.

I don't have the BB/RB handy, but I'm pretty sure 755 is a known Griswold pattern number.

Edit: Doh, Doug always beats me to the punch

With that said, is there a web site that truly deals with IDing CastIron cookware. I mean a site that an antique dealer may use as reference.
My beasty is a 12inch DutchOven ........ Only marks are a small diamond on the bottom edge.
A tennis ball sized circle dead center of the bottom......
And then, on the bottom side of the pouring assist tab is the spots for two fingers.
That's it... Please help

You've already requested help and posted photos of your pan in another thread. Adding the request to multiple other (and unrelated) threads is actually counterproductive. Please be patient, and if someone has some information on your piece, I'm sure they will offer it. Please note that many pieces will never be positively identified, and we're all doing the best we can here to share what we do know.