Canadian copy of Griswold?

M

MikeZ

Member
Two days after I bought a Griswold Colonial Breakfast Skillet at a flea market (for $15, I need to say), I read a post on the Canadian CI Facebook page that RickC mentioned a while back. (https://www.facebook.com/groups/674804965958064/)

It'd be interesting as to how this came about...

Photos attached, I hope.
 

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Hmm..... Interesting... I don't know a lot about CA cast iron but Smart seemed to be a fairly large player. Who better to copy than Griswold.

I'd pick that up if I saw one cheap enough.

I'm not on the Facebook by the way, but passed it on for those that are. I know I'm probably missing out, but it (Facebook) just creeps me out. :(
 
Here's an identical Findlay... Still needs to be cleaned.
 

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Old post I know, but been searching the forum for old Canadian stuff... Something bugs me about the whole breakfast skillet thing... McClary Mfg made one as well, it's marked "McClary" which puts it prior to the GSW merger (that is verified btw) in 1927. So, who copied who?

http://gallery.castironcanada.com/thumbnails.php?album=36

Read somewhere that Griswold applied for a patent, but didn't get it?
 
Based on design quality with the handle and curves coupled with Griswold experience in making square skillets I'm guessing Griswold was first out of the chute circa 1920. I suspect sales went very well to ma & pa restaurants with Wagner and McClary jumping in with handle changes to get a piece of the market.

In my opinion the Griswold handle being flat is the best for carrying a ways to the diner. Wagner kept that concept but put in on a strange side for the diner. McClary kept the correct orientation but used a handle more likely to twist in the hand when serving and had sharper curves harder to clean. All three definitely made their own molds from scratch trying to be different from Griswold incase Griswold did get a patent. I don't think they did.

Hilditch
 
Everything i read online says Griswold 666 is circa 1940 but I don't have a book to go with it. Were these made in the 20's?
 
Neither the square nor the round Griswold breakfast skillets appear in the 1926 catalog, but they both are in the 1932.

The BB dates the round 1932, and the square "1940s", but on the next page dates the Cliff Cornell version "1930s".

The 1932 catalog says they are also made in aluminum, but they do not appear in the 1928 aluminum catalog.
 
Doug D. said:
Neither the square nor the round Griswold breakfast skillets appear in the 1926 catalog, but they both are in the 1932.
Click to expand...

Interesting...

I'm still trying to track down the dates for the Smart Endurance series, no luck but there's a 1939 ad for the Endurance axes.
 
I seem to remember seeing a copy of a catalogue from the early 20's showing the breakfast skillet for under $9.00 a dozen. I could be wrong but I also have run into things like the following.

Sears and Roebuck got caught-up with their own brand too and declared in 1908 that Imperial Stove Hollow Ware was “as easy to keep clean as china." Moreover the gray cast iron and pure white porcelain were "united at an intense heat, thereby forming a perfect union of the two."

There were some innovations.

A few years after the Sears ad, Griswold offered the public their delightful Colonial breakfast skillet. Compartments provided for bacon, hash browns, and eggs according to author Weaver. "In this unique skillet, an entire colonial meal was condense and frozen for time in iron," adds the researcher. "It was America's first TV dinner, long before TV."

Hilditch
 
W. Hilditch said:
I seem to remember seeing a copy of a catalogue from the early 20's showing the breakfast skillet for under $9.00 a dozen. I could be wrong but I also have run into things like the following.

Sears and Roebuck got caught-up with their own brand too and declared in 1908 that Imperial Stove Hollow Ware was “as easy to keep clean as china." Moreover the gray cast iron and pure white porcelain were "united at an intense heat, thereby forming a perfect union of the two."

There were some innovations.

A few years after the Sears ad, Griswold offered the public their delightful Colonial breakfast skillet. Compartments provided for bacon, hash browns, and eggs according to author Weaver. "In this unique skillet, an entire colonial meal was condense and frozen for time in iron," adds the researcher. "It was America's first TV dinner, long before TV."
Click to expand...
Guess the researcher didn't have any dated Griswold catalogs to which they could refer. :roll:
 
I wonder, due to ad/photo/mistakes/etc. errors, if not being in a 1926 catalogue means they were not being made, or had not been made?

Hilditch
 
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