"Harold Leonard" pan

[Jeremy Marin]

I'm hoping this is an allowed post.

After doing a few cast iron skillets I decided to decrudify a very filthy, very large, steel (not cast iron) pan, and now I'm curious about it's history.

Previously thought it was no name, but now cleaned it clearly says "Harold Leonard" and "Italy" on the bottom. There is another mark that I can't figure out what it says at the tip of the 15" long handle.

The pan is about 15" diameter at top, about 12" diameter at the bottom, with a 15" long handle. It was clearly used in outdoor fires, many times.

I've found lots of references to "Harold Leonard" knives, especially cleavers, but I can't find anything about the company making pans.

If anybody has suggestions about where to find more information, I'd appreciate it.

 

[SpurgeonH]

I not know anything about it, but it's a good looking pan. It looks like a chef's pan.

 

[KevinE]

I'm not sure that the company made anything. What little I can deduce about them is that they were a restaurant/cooking equipment supplier and had many items made in various places with their name on them. Nice old carbon steel pan.

 

[MDFraley]

Jeremy...I think Kevin is spot on with his post. These type pans were a pressed steel method where as a huge press would force the imprint of the die used into piece of carbon steel thus creating what was being made. I see a lot of these in antique shops with various names imprinted on them. National is a more common labeled pan that I see.
What's interesting on your pan is how the handle is attached. I have found that a lot of these pressed pans handles are a monolithic part of the press and there is no gap between the handle and the pan. The ones that are obvious a two part construction have rivets that hold the handle to the pan. Hard to tell on your pic ( second picture) if that method was used. It could have been attached using a spot weld procedure like the auto industries use which would cut down cost and speed up production during manufacturing.
I'm sure these were turned out by the hundreds with all sorts of impressed printing for restaurants and the sorts all around the world. I find them hard to keep seasoned so I do not use them much.

 

[Jeremy Marin]

Hi all. Thank you for the great information.

It seemed like a mass produced pan, but the "Italy" threw me, and made me wonder if it might be of more value than I originally thought.

MDFraley: Yes, the handle is spot-welded on, good catch!

Off to a friend it goes, with more information for good fun.