"Sidney" ?

A pan marked "Sidney" on the bottom with a 10 at 6 o'clock and outside heat ring. Is this an unmarked Wagner, or another brand from the same area?

Sidney Holloware was a different company. Wagner bought them in about 1897.

Does that mean this pan is older than 1897?

Pieces marked just "Sidney" in block letters, as opposed to "Sidney, O" in script or "Sidney Hollowware Co." are assumed to have been made during the period of Wagner ownership at the SHW foundry.

Based on the information I have gleaned from this site on the history of SHW and Wagner, can we infer that the production of these pans was from 1897-1903, since '97 was when Wagner took over the SHW factory and 1903 is when it was sold back to its original owner (who did not produce anymore CI with it)?

Also, if Wagner owned the factory, I assume this means that they controlled the production of the molds for this line. If true, would that make it more of a Wagner piece? Are there other considerations (like the equipment used, production tenchiques, the location of the plant, or simply the name "Sidney" on the pan) that would put it more in the SHW line, although with an asterisk that it was under Wagner ownership? Proto-Wagner? Post-Sidney Hollow Ware (Wagner)?

These "Sidney's" seem to have an unusual quasi status in CI manufacture, and beyond the issue of classification for collector/documentary purposes, I wonder if there is any debate or basis for a settled criteria (heirarchical or otherwise) that determines the identity of these pieces, and by extension, of CI cookware in general.