Mystery Non Vintage Cast Iron Dutch Oven

[KimberlyS]

We have a hammered cast iron dutch oven that we have used throughout the years until we got a Creuset dutch oven that doesn't need seasoning. I've noticed many of the cooking forums using the old cast iron models and thought I'd resurrect the old pot from the storeroom.

I asked my mother where it had come from. She told me she had bought it in the early 1950's in South Burlington VT in one of the first discount department stores that appeared at that time. So its not a real vintage model. It has no markings other than the "8" on the lid.

http://s171.photobucket.com/user/kimslack/slideshow/CastIron2

I am curious about who made it. I've browsed the different manufacturers but non seem to match this model. Has anybody got any opinions?

 

[Doug D.]

There appears, other than the known brands, to be more than one maker who tried to cash in on the popularity of hammered cast iron back during the time it was popular, but they didn't cast a name or other identifying marks into the pieces themselves. These unknown hammereds are typically a bit more crudely designed than those of Lodge, Griswold, CHF, etc, but that doesn't seem to have stopped a small segment of collectors from embracing them.

 

[KimberlyS]

Considering it was a discount store, your opinion is probably on the money. My parents were just starting out and had little money. My mother tells me the reason she bought the dutch oven was because her Mom had a big dutch oven she used all the time when my mom was growing up in rural Vermont. So probably many young wives during the post WWII period bought them new because their parents had always used them in the past.