Erie Series 1 Recast?

[Kim L]

I live on Canada's west coast and have a few pieces of vintage Canadian cast iron cookware made between ~1930 and the mid-1960's. I have never come across vintage cast iron cookware that was manufactured before this time frame, and although there's lots of Wagner Ware pieces out here, there's very few Griswold pieces. This week I picked up a skillet marked with "ERIE" for ~$20USD that I don't think has much value beyond cooking my breakfast - but I'm hopeful that the experts on this forum can give me a sense of how it might have been created.

 

[Doug D.]

Before side-gating technology, sand mold casting was pretty much just bury a pattern that for the most part resembled the piece being cast in a separable sand mold, let the sand harden, remove the pattern, reassemble the mold, cut a hole or slit down to the cavity, and pour in the molten iron. Erie skillets were never bottom-gated. This pan was made using an actual Erie pan as a pattern in the manner described in the previous sentence. We can tell from the handle style, it was a 1st series Erie pan, ca. early 1880s, but this pan could have been made any time after that.

More on sand mold casting:

Sand Mold Casting - The Cast Iron Collector: Information for The Vintage Cookware Enthusiast

The Cast Iron Collector: Sand mold casting.

www.castironcollector.com