New Find - Roll Pan

I recently stopped at an antique store in a small town in Eastern WA and came across this piece, since I am new to vintage cast iron I had never seen one before. It's a N. Waterman roll pan #3 manufactured by R&E Co. I think it is totally cool and once I get it stripped and reseasoned the first thing I'm going to bake is some corn bread. The pan is a bit rough around the edges, but I kind of like it that way. Just wanted to share it! Rene'

There are a very nice series of gem pans made under the Nathaniel Waterman patent of April 4, 1859 and numbered from 1-11 with 1-8 being of a similar and shallow nature. Waterman had the patent for the DESIGN and many of the pans will have his name on one end plus the patent date on the other. Other pans have R&E Mfg. Co. in place of Waterman's name. That was Russell & Erwin of Conn. and they were probably not the makers of these pans but were the ones who SOLD them. Waterman wasn't a maker either so I really do wonder WHO made them. Does your pan have a bottom gate mark? They are not supposed to- at least I see them being side gated pans- but I do see some that may be a copy with a bottom gate. The R&E and Waterman pans often have some minor differences which I can't explain and what appear to be the earliest Waterman pans have a different and thinner handle with poorly defined incised writing. Easily my favorite is a Waterman No.9 that is superbly cast or any of the three cup Waterman gem pans that slightly predate the more common larger ones.

I'm not sure what a gate mark is , (newbie)! It has a 3 on the bottom, here is a link, if you click on the #3 under N. Waterman the picture is the same as my pan. http://www.castironcollector.com/gems.php

The No.3 on Doug's site has two gate marks on two of the cups that show up as a thin line on the two center cups to the right.