First Post Here: Griswold #13 Oval Skillet, Chrome Plated?

[Sandy Patterson]

I apologize in advance if I'm not doing this 100% correctly. I have read on how to post and have tried hard to pay attention, but frankly my curiosity is eating me up to know what I have so I'm going to proceed despite the fact I'll probably screw something up. Please don't hesitate to point out any errors I've made, and I'll do my best to correct them ASAP. Thanks in advance for any help.

The day before yesterday I was at Goodwill in my town and spotted some CI on the shelf. The pan I picked up was a silver colored #13 Griswold oval skillet. I'm not a dedicated cast iron person. I deal a lot with art and antiques so I know a good thing when I see it, but my knowledge is wide as opposed to deep. From what research I've done I believe the pan is a Du-Chrome #13 since it's not particularly shiny and it's not any smoother than most other cast iron I've encountered. That said, it could be nickel plated? I don't have the benefit of having seen an example of both to compare and contrast. If this is the case (and please correct me if it's not) I have some questions...

1) Is it safe to clean the chrome plate in a lye bath? I have heard that it is, but with a piece like this I'd really like to make sure before I bugger it up. I'd love to hear from folks who've done it themselves.

2) Just going by the condition shown in the pics, what's the approximate value of a pan like this? I know the chrome is not particularly desirable unless it's A1 condition, but how much does that knock the value down?

3) Probably an heresy to even mention as a hypothetical but... Since the piece is not highly polished and the plate is not in great shape (at least as far I can currently tell), would it be worth more if the chrome was removed? I know that it's frowned upon because the chromed pieces are polished, and are not the same as the bare cast iron pieces when they come out of the mold, so there will always be indicators that the piece is in non-original condition. Is that the same with the less polished Du-chrome?

If anybody has answers or info for any or all of these questions please let me know, and thanks for the help.

Please excuse any duplication of images. It's my first time here and I'm feeling my way a bit.

Lastly, for those who may be curious, the skillet in the background is a Wagner 1386B chef skillet I got free at the dump on Thursday.

https://imgur.com/a/pIdJLYm

 

[Doug D.]

Du-Chro seems to have meant different things, depending on time or the particular piece, but it is a chromium finish. Griswold used nickel early on, but only chrome can give the mirror polish. True that pans were prepped for chrome and a stripped chrome pan isn't necessarily the same as one made to be left bare iron. Conversely, there are Du-Chro pieces which could never be mirror polished, e.g the inside and bottoms of corn stick pans, so I would expect that what's under their plating is no different than a bare iron version.

I would leave it as-is; the condition is about as-expected for a piece that's not NOS. Lye should not be a problem, at least it hasn't been in my experience; the internet may disagree. You may opt to err on the side of caution and just fill the inside with a lye solution or just spray with HD Easy-Off. Book value in a guide not updated in over a decade put a bare iron #13 oval at $250-300; with present-day eBay, who knows?

 

[Sandy Patterson]

Book value in a guide not updated in over a decade put a bare iron #13 oval at $250-300; with present-day eBay, who knows?

I've seen some pretty wild asking prices out there so I'm definitely curious. One that apparently sold on Etsy was marked at $1300 (possibly discounted), and another #13 without plating on eBay right now is $1400. I may have to find an auctioneer who specializes in this kinda stuff, ship it to them, and take my chances. Whatever it comes out to be, it ain't too shabby for the $30 I spent.