1 hour ago
Not each vintage formed robust is created equal: astatine the February 2025 Air Works Consignment Auction, a Griswold No. 13 (14-inch) skillet sold for $2,600 to $3,300, squarely successful the garage-sale jackpot range. The biggest archer is the branding, with Griswold’s earliest ERIE-era marks and the ultra-rare Erie Spider logo lasting retired from the acold much communal Griswold and Wagner pans that typically commercialized for $20 to $400.
Key Takeaways
- Most vintage formed robust sells for humble sums, but a constrictive acceptable of marque markings and sizes tin propulsion a skillet into four-figure territory.
- One short-lived Griswold logo is truthful scarce that collectors judge lone a tiny fig of legible examples past today.
- An oddball skillet size, produced successful constricted numbers partially owed to superstition, keeps drafting large bids astatine caller auctions.
The dusty cast-iron cookware sitting nether a folding array astatine a store merchantability is usually a $20 to $75 problem, not a payday. But collectors volition wage existent wealth for the close names stamped connected the bottom, particularly Griswold from Erie, Pennsylvania and its longtime rival Wagner retired of Sidney, Ohio. The tells tin beryllium amazingly specific: an aboriginal “ERIE” mark, the famously scarce Erie Spider logo from astir 1890 to 1891, oregon a genuinely uncommon No. 13 size that has pushed into the $1,500 to $3,000 scope astatine auction. It is the benignant of niche that turns a speedy glimpse astatine a rusty skillet into a dilatory flip, a person read, and possibly a precise antithetic checkout total.
A astonishing treasure successful formed robust cookware
The adjacent clip you’re scanning a store merchantability table, that heavy, rust-stained skillet mightiness beryllium much than weekend-project clutter. A constrictive portion of vintage American formed iron, particularly pieces tied to Griswold Manufacturing and its longtime rival Wagner Manufacturing, tin ascent into the thousands erstwhile the markings and sizes enactment up. Most pans won’t, but a fewer precise circumstantial ones inactive do.
Collectors person a elemental regularisation of thumb: communal vintage sizes often commercialized similar mean room gear, portion uncommon logos and oddball sizes behave much similar scarce memorabilia. That quality is wherefore mundane skillets, including emblematic Griswold and Wagner pieces, often onshore betwixt $20 and $400, portion the outliers tin scope $1,500 to $3,000 and beyond, particularly astatine auction.
Griswold vs. Wagner: an American manufacturing rivalry
Griswold Manufacturing operated retired of Erie, Pennsylvania, and dominated American formed robust cookware for overmuch of the 20th century, with Wagner Manufacturing based successful Sidney, Ohio arsenic its main competitor. Those foundry origins substance due to the fact that the marque names, patterns, and logos are precisely what today’s buyers hunt for erstwhile a cookware shows up connected a folding array with nary communicative attached.
The astir coveted Griswold people is the “Erie Spider”, a spider-on-a-web trademark utilized concisely astir 1890 to 1891, arsenic elaborate successful the Erie Spider trademark archive. It’s not conscionable rare, it’s fragile: collectors estimation less than astir 200 legible spider-logo skillets past due to the fact that the raised emblem could deterioration down implicit decades of stovetop contact.
The No. 13 skillet: wherefore a “14-inch” cookware becomes a 4-figure collectible
Then there’s the famed Griswold No. 13, a 14-inch skillet that became genuinely scarce successful portion due to the fact that of superstition astir the fig 13, positive its awkward presumption betwixt the much communal No. 12 and No. 14 sizes. Fewer made it retired the door, and present that accumulation quirk shows up plainly successful auction results.
At the February 2025 Air Works Consignment Auction, a Griswold No. 13 large-block-logo skillet with vigor ring, signifier 716, sold for $3,300, portion a No. 13 slant-logo skillet with vigor ring, signifier 720, sold for $2,600, per the pattern numbers guide. Later, a November 2025 collector auction successful Montgomery, Indiana saw a No. 13 large-block-logo hammer astatine $3,200 and a slant-logo No. 13 astatine $2,400.
What to look for astatine a store sale
Spotting worth is little astir radiance and much astir signals: logo era, signifier number, vigor ringing details, and the benignant of size stamp astir sellers ne'er notice. The upside is real. An authentic spider-logo Griswold skillet sold for $10,000 astatine auction successful August 2024, 1 of the strongest documented prices successful this niche, according to auction pricing summaries.
And Griswold isn’t the lone marque with a “13” story. A Wagner Ware “Sidney -O-” No. 13 skillet sold for astir $949 astatine a 2024 auction, a reminder that the champion garage-sale finds usually commencement with 2 questions: what’s the mark, and what’s the size?
English (US) 