What do your lips look like?
Does it really matter? Depends on whether I'm smiling or sleeping. Now that I'm back from a fun convention I can dig into this thread with my 45 cents worth.
1. John, I can only see 5 photos of what look like one skillet. No Favorite or Good Health or whatever. No photo of the bottom of the ERIE bottom gated skillet. Am I missing somewhere to look? Ive looked at your slideshow of the 5 photos on the left of the linked page you gave.
2. What I think you are showing as a grind mark on the outside of the lip I would say is a slip of the grinder by the operator who probably didn't mean to grind there. I've never seen a gate on the lip I can remember but, usually, long sections of the top, outer edge of the skillets rim will be where the gate is if the pan is not bottom gated in the old way.
3. Your pan, if it's the one in the photos I am seeing, is not one of the earlier styles of ERIE skillets. "IF" Griswold made any bottom gated skillets it would seem logical that they would be of the earliest style of Griswold skillets. On The Pan Handlers page you show, look for the old No.7 ERIE pan with bottom gate shown with one other pan in the page. That is the earliest style. A collector I know has both rim and bottom gated versions. The bottom gated pan is smaller which would occur from being copied from another skillet (the real, rim gated pan made by Griswold).
4. Not all the information you see, read, or are told is accurate. None of us knows it all and much information or truth is very hard if not impossible to ascertain. A major collector did some ERIE skillet research and articles about 6 years ago. I and some other collectors don't think he was very astute in seeing the many differences in ERIE pans and that he missed, entirely, the earliest style of ERIE skillets. He steadfastly refused to consider than bottom gated ERIE skillets were not made by Griswold but were probably copies made by (many different) unknown foundries at many different time periods. Even slant TM Griswold bottom gated skillets exist as well as Wagner skillets. The Pan Handler page mentions "c.1860" for several of the bottom gated pans. Griswold began in business in 1865 so you might deduce how accurate other information is on that page. I don't think Griswold even began to make iron cookware until c.1880 but some books (good ones) mention c.1870 for some pieces of Griswold cookware (skillets, for instance). It think that's way too early. Griswold (Selden & Griswold at that time) began by making hardware articles.
5. Your Favorite and Good Health skillets; Have to know more to know the value. Haven't seen any photos yet. Generally they won't be worth more than around $15 to 45. Values on bottom gated ERIE skillets? Hard to say. To those who believe they were made by Griswold and are the oldest (and rare) versions of Griswold skillets, they probably would be worth a lot ($100+?). To those who think otherwise they are worth very little; sort of like a curiousity that would be fun to own if CHEAP. $5 to 25? I'm in the latter camp and have never owned or wanted one.
6. Quality/weight/finish of bottom gated ERIE skillets: Depending upon who cast the pan it could be light, finely finished, and smooth or heavy, unground, and somewhat crude. I have some ERIE style bottom gated skillets (no visible ERIE) that are quite a bit lighter than ERIE skillets and well made and finished. Others I have seen are crude and nothing like Griswold was ever known to have made.
7. The inside grinding of your skillet is not the quality that Griswold did. But it was ground which does indicate to me that the foundry where it was made may have made cookware as it was set up to grind the interior. Could any foundry have done that? I don't know.
8. As far as where the bottom gate would be placed, it was different on different pans and from different foundries it seems. The ERIE on the bottom of the skillet would probably be of no or little concern to the person copying an ERIE skillet so, it is was partially or totally obliterated or came out very light, that would still give a good, useable skillet.
9. Yes, ERIE Spider skillets come up from time to time with very good definition on the spider TM. These pans are like Griswold's second series skillets and not the earliest style so they are not the earliest pans. I've often wondered why only the 8 was done in the spider TM.
10. Selden & Griswold, by 1883, was making skillets sizes 7-12 and a LOT (full line) of other iron cookware. I've seen believable information on when they started making iron cookware. Waffle irons could be the first product and they were first patented in 1880. But an 1882 newspaper ad does not list waffle irons or skillets. (See Hausler, first page of Chapter one). Big mystery to me and I would love to know the answer. Unable to get ahold of Samuel Selden or Mathew Griswold to check with them and the telegraph lines are down.
11. It's possible that Griswold developed the side gating method. At least they were one of the first to do so. There were so many other foundries in the later half of the 19 century that it would seem impossible to tell who was the inventor/developer. I have and have seen some early style skillets that are side gated. But they COULD have been made later than the early ERIE skillets. Very hard to impossible to date iron cookware other than from the major makers and even then it's hard to get closer than about a 10 year period.
12. Troy-and this is important- Griswold used a "rim" on the bottom of their skillet and did not call it a "leveling ring". That's something that the newer company (Lodge) did. Oh, and the bottom marks are not "struck" but are cast in. (Had to get my 3 cents in, too). Good deal at $3 for that pan I'd say.
OK, my "attack" is over. Glad you brought up all these questions John. I love the little intricities of the hobby and all the variations there are. Best way to learn is to ask, talk, guess, make mistakes (and later realize it), etc. Hope I caught all of your questions. Feel free to phone me if you ever want to at 415-453-7790 7-10am or 6-11pm pacific time is best M-F. Weekends I'm sometimes out more around 7-11am but eves are good.
Steve
