Reference Material

[Glenn Brown]

Okay, I know about the "Red Book and Blue Book," but are there any reference materials that deal with Lodge, BSR or any of the other "less" desirable collecting pieces? One of my loves in life is history, and I was a criminal investigator in another life. I am very familiar with researching and finding information. Looking around the internet, I'm not finding a lot of info and checking my local library, cannot find anything. Just curious if any of you are aware of other books, internet sites, etc., where I can find more info.

 

[Doug D.]

While the focus of the red and blue books are primarily Wagner and Griswold, each does have sections on other makers, Lodge included in the RB. There is no published guide to BSR, but quite a bit is known about it from catalogs and surviving members of the Jones family.

http://www.castironcollector.com/birmingham.php

 

[RickC]

I don't know if this counts as "Reference Material" but I scanned a bunch of Wagner/GHC employee newsletters that were past onto me by the Daughter of a long time Wagner employee. If anything it gives a little insight into the last years of Wagner. :frown:

You can see the thread here, as well as links to download/view the newsletters.

http://www.castironcollector.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1248

The other place to find old ads, and some other misc tidbits is the Google Books archives. I've collected ads, and articles I've found through there. You can see them here: Cast Iron Cookware Ads.

Another place you could check is http://newspapers.com they have searchable scans of newspapers going way back. You can see some of them for free (if you create a free account) to see all of them it's not that expensive for a short term subscription.

 

[Glenn Brown]

Thanks for the information. I've seen the material on the home page of The Cast Iron Collector and am familiar with searching newspapers. I suppose that hollow ware manufacturing is not something that most scholars would want for a doctoral dissertation. Sometimes someone will write a book (not widely circulated) about a specific area and have it published at their own expense. I know of several that were done about specific subjects of my area. I am just trying to pick the brains of the members if they are aware of anything like this, or some book about other collectibles that might have a chapter specific to cast iron, such as Lodge or BSR.

 

[RickC]

Sometimes someone will write a book (not widely circulated) about a specific area and have it published at their own expense. I know of several that were done about specific subjects of my area. I am just trying to pick the brains of the members if they are aware of anything like this, or some book about other collectibles that might have a chapter specific to cast iron, such as Lodge or BSR.

When you write the book, please let us all know so we can purchase a copy. :tongue:

More to the truth, to 99% of the population something as mundane as cast iron cookware isn't given a second thought. .8% only give it a second thought because they want so sell some at a nice profit. The other .2% of us are HERE.

I happen to have supportive Family & Friends who kind of understand, but are supportive none the less.