Carla,
Look at this thread http://www.griswoldandwagner.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1139455971;start=all on the WAGNER 11 skillet which shows some good examples of reinforcing pads or whatever you want to call them.
Replies No.1 and 9 show typical reinforcing pads that were used to make the skillet wall thicker so it would be less likely to crack at the handle attachment point. That worked to a degree but transfered the crack to the edge of where the pad is, at least on series 2 ERIE's which are somewhat thinly cast.
Reply 7 shows an early scooped handle pan with a reinforcing triangular rib but no pad to help spread the stresses. I don't know if that pan is a Wagner, Griswold, Favorite or what. Several foundries copied or later used old Griswold patterns to cast very similiar pans. At least on the Griswold ones (ERIE's) these are the earliest versions of ERIE's. Do you see the area under the handle that seems to be scooped out? That's how several of us coined the name for these handles. Griswold never had a fancy, distinct name for parts or styles of handles I would guess.
Note on all these earlier skillets that they have a distinct reinforced top rim where there is thicker metal on the top about 1/4" of the rim on the outside. In later pans this reinforcing was blended into the skillet wall as was the reinforcing pad initially. See Reply 8 for an example. You can see an outline of the reinforcing pad as it was before being smoothed into the pan's wall. Would this pan be series 4? By this time I think the ERIE skillets lost their appeal and fine craftmanship and style.
Looking at your Reply 22 you can see your pan has no remains of the reinforcing pad or top rim although the handle is still reinforced by being flared into the skillet wall and the top rim is thicker in the top 3/8" but there is no distinct transition of the wall thickness as on series 1-3 ERIE's.
Steve
