BSR #8 Chicken Fryer (I think)

DonnaM said:
Doug, it it a hallmark of BSR lids that they are thicker around on one end than the other? And are any other brands like that? Thanks.
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If you mean the handle, the taper is a device to let the handle part of the lid pattern retract before the pattern is removed from the mold. Wagner handles are also like this, just not as tapered. Earlier techniques used hinged, retractable halves, so those handles are really two prongs which meet tightly together. If not as tightly as intended, the small separation is sometimes misidentified as a crack.

See also: http://www.castironcollector.com/casting.php
 
Nick this thread has been a good read for me too. From what I know about BSR unfortunately it seems to be hard to narrow down even close timelines of when it was made, I have two a #7&8 and enjoy how well they perform when I use them. I do use other pans of very collectable TM's but when others mention BSR With very high respect of just some no name back then. I think they are on to something, ask how I know:p


Steve,
 
Doug D. said:
The spouts look small, and make me think this is a post-automation piece. The RM "style" markings were apparently used on pieces sold as Century. We know the crudely incised , "handwritten" markings to be older and definitely RM. But the later higher quality lettering could be either. Compared to what's on my RM lid the lettering on this one doesn't seem the typical crude. Looking at the basters too long and I can't decide if I find them more random or regular in placement. But they're not as random as my lid.
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So Doug, please help. Are you saying it is not a RM, or are you saying it was made after 1960, or what? Not sure exactly what you are telling me, and I don't have a clue what you & Donna are talking about on the lid.

Still, as I have mentioned a couple of times, the lady that owned it (my wife's great grandmother), died in 1960, if that helps....and she was 65 when she passed....the fryer was old then ?

I can't see how it could be made after 1960. She used the pan, as long as anyone can remember, and it eventually got passed down to my wife.

Either way, I just want to ID the pan, restore it, and eventually put it to use..:tongue:

Here are more pics

IMG_0572.jpg IMG_0573.jpg IMG_0574.jpg
 
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What I assume Donna is asking and I am talking about is the handle on the lid.

Not all BSR pieces marked like Red Mountain i.e. "8 G 2" were necessarily sold as Red Mountain. The switch to Century in 1954 was in name only, and happened before the marking style was changed to "NO. 8". We can guess about where a pan falls in the timeline by the crudeness or lack thereof of the older style markings and also if the pan appears to have been cast using automated molding processes.
 
Doug D. said:
What I assume Donna is asking and I am talking about is the handle on the lid.

Not all BSR pieces marked like Red Mountain i.e. "8 G 2" were necessarily sold as Red Mountain. The switch to Century in 1954 was in name only, and happened before the marking style was changed to "NO. 8". We can guess about where a pan falls in the timeline by the crudeness or lack thereof of the older style markings and also if the pan appears to have been cast using automated molding processes.
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I attached some pics to my last post, and three more here. The dimples look pretty random to me, but again, I'm certainly no expert.

IMG_0575.jpg IMG_0576.jpg IMG_0571.jpg
 
In those shots, they do. On the oldest lids, the dimples are quite irregularly placed and larger. My guess would then be that she acquired the pan probably sometime in the early 1950s.
 
Doug D. said:
In those shots, they do. On the oldest lids, the dimples are quite irregularly placed and larger. My guess would then be that she acquired the pan probably sometime in the early 1950s.
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So what do you think that means ? Again, forgive me, but I'm new and still learning.. I kinda need it in "layman's terms". :confused:
 
It means if she was born in 1895, she didn't get this pan and lid until much later in her life.
 
Doug D. said:
It means if she was born in 1895, she didn't get this pan and lid until much later in her life.
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?

So, help me out here. Is this a RM, and is the question the time it was made ? So far as when she owned it, we know for certain. Still learning....
 
The markings are in the style of the BSR Red Mountain series. But, as they are not crudely shaped as they were seen on the oldest Red Mountain series pans, we know that this pan was not likely produced in the 1930s or 40s. That the lettering on the lid is similarly not crudely written, and its dimpling on the underside is random but not larger in diameter also suggests it is not pre-1950, either. If this pan was then, as surmised, originally sold in the 1950s, it could have been sold either as RM or Century, depending on which half of the decade it was sold.
 
BSR made holloware using a traditional manual sand-casting method from the 1930s to 1966. During this time they were originally branded Red Mountain but changed the brand name to Century in 1957. This was primarily just a branding change, the same methods and patterns were used to make them, and with the exception of a few minor details it can be hard to definitively say which were Red Mountain and which were Century from that time period.

In 1967 BSR switched to DISA automation, which required new patterns as the old ones were not compatible with the new machinery. Though still branded Century, those are much easier to distinguish from the pre-automation products.

I hope this provides some context so you can better understand the comments being made.
 
Doug D. said:
The markings are in the style of the BSR Red Mountain series. But, as they are not crudely shaped as they were seen on the oldest Red Mountain series pans, we know that this pan was not likely produced in the 1930s or 40s. That the lettering on the lid is similarly not crudely written, and its dimpling on the underside is random but not larger in diameter also suggests it is not pre-1950, either. If this pan was then, as surmised, originally sold in the 1950s, it could have been sold either as RM or Century, depending on which half of the decade it was sold.
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Okay, thanks for your help.....but, it is a RM ? Yes ?
 
Birmingham Stove & Range Co. (BSR) made this pan. In 1954, they changed their cookware brand name from Red Mountain to Century. Since their pans are unmarked, all they needed to do was change the adhesive paper labels affixed to the pan. Unless there is a dated receipt, we can't do any more than guess which of those labels was on it.
 
Doug D. said:
Birmingham Stove & Range Co. (BSR) made this pan. In 1954, they changed their cookware brand name from Red Mountain to Century. Since their pans are unmarked, all they needed to do was change the adhesive paper labels affixed to the pan. Unless there is a dated receipt, we can't do any more than guess which of those labels was on it.
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Thanks Doug, hate to be such a pain. Now I understand!

Oh, and I suppose it's Super Bowl time.......Later
 
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Sorry Nick (and Doug) for my poor typing and proof-reading. I was indeed asking about the handle on top of the lid and the places where it attaches to the lid. The handle is thicker on one end than it is on the other, and I was asking if that was a BSR characteristic and a good BSR identifier. Doug said Wagner handles are like this too, just not as tapered.

I hope I was clearer this time! :shootself:
 
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