"Brilliant" Waffle Iron

Raised pattern numbers would be atypical of Griswold, even on items sourced from them. The handle style and their attachment with rivets is similar to Favorite Piqua, but little else is. FPW was also not seen using pattern numbers.
 
the base more closely resembles the ones by Fanner... like the ones where they modifed the handle to have 'letters' in the open space.
 
Brilliant is listed in our foundry data base here on CIC but has no info regarding it's history.
Did notice that the handles look exactly like the ones used on the Puritan waffler made by Griswold (see photo on p.91 of the BB). The same type handle also appear on the Square American WI, also in the BB p.94.
Looks like it will clean up nicely.
 
The base does look similar to a Fanner base, but there are many differences. Where the handle meets the base is different. Also, the handle didn't have a point to it as the Fanner does.

Where the handles of the WI's rotate in the base is different.

If you have multiple WI's, place them in the base to see if they fit. I feel the base will be the key in knowing who made the WI.
 
So far I've determined that there was a Brilliant Iron & Steel Co. in Brilliant, Ohio that went out of business sometime between 1893 - 1895. I found a reference to a focus on bar iron (whatever that means... literally iron bars?), but still don't know if they made cookware. I doubt they did.

Those are not rivets securing the handles, they are attached with a single nail. Kind of janky really. The wood freely slides in and out about 1/8". Which leads to the possibility that these may not be the original handles. There happens to be one of these on ebay right now with different handles: https://www.ebay.com/itm/BS6-Vintag...on-2457-No-8-wooden-handles-7-5-/332694404761

BTW, I didn't buy it because I noticed a giant crack in the base and they didn't want to bargain with me. I just thought it was worth exploring where the heck this came from!

---------- Post added at 02:44 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:28 AM ----------

At least part of the mystery is solved. Brilliant is not a CI foundry but rather a brand or trademark.

It looks like Stover Manufacturing Co., who made Belmont branded WIs for Belknap Hardware, did the Brilliant iron too. Same pattern numbers, same everything:
https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/belmont-cast-iron-waffle-iron-2455-1856982914

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/Xe4AAOSwxHdbfs8~/s-l1600.jpg

http://www.wag-society.org/guest/Belmont/Belmont.html

http://www.castironcollector.com/belknap.php
http://www.castironcollector.com/stover.php

Now I want to know if Brilliant was yet another Belknap TM or if they were made for someone else.
 
I think we can safely say that whoever made the Brilliant iron in the first post also made the Belmont iron with the same pattern numbers. We can also see that Stover made a Belmont branded iron, ostensibly for Belknap, and similar to if not the same as an Ideal branded iron they made and which Belknap also sold. But I don't think we can make the jump to say Stover also made the irons with the pattern numbers on them, the expectation being that irons Stover made and branded for others would have the same non-matching nub patterns.

Image
 
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