Griswold Square Egg Skillets

MikeZ

Member
So, another early/late handle question. In looking at an assortment of Griswold Square Egg skillets, I see that pans marked 129 have an early style handle, while those marked 53 have a late style one. Of the ones I've looked at, the 129s generally are a finer casting with crisper lettering. They're shown on page 41 of the Blue Book, with a date of the 1960s listed for the #53 and "unknown" for the #129. There's no listing for 129 in the pattern index listings.

Any thoughts as to a manufacture date for the 129s?
 
The 129 is listed in my BB. 129s are seen with both early and late style handles, and the early handles with either SQUAR or SQUARE. The late handle 129s appear to have the pattern letter A, whereas the early handles have no letter. Some have extrapolated from the late handle 129A that it could be no earlier than about 1944, the generally accepted dating for the late handle skillets. From the BB dating the 53s as 1960s, the thinking is after Wagner had been sold. Given that, one would expect, if there is a difference, the 129s would exhibit finer castings than the 53s. There is also a version with no Griswold TM or p/n, just Square Egg Skillet and Made In USA. There was a pattern seen in the defunct Wagner plant with the "Since 1865" replaced by "Made In USA", but no production pieces seem to have turned up.
 
Thanks for the info. My observations were based on a limited sampling of 8 skillets I just bought. What's the earliest you think these were made? Before 1944? I've just acquired a 1941 Griswold salesman's catalog, and I don't see any in it, although the catalog may not be all-inclusive. I'll be looking at these more closely from now on.
 
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