Victor No. 8 skillet with a Gate Mark???

D

Drew_S

New member
I have an interesting skillet that I would like to find some history on. Passed down from my grandmother, I restored a No. 8 Victor skillet. The makings on the bottom are "VICTOR" across the top, "8" on the bottom and a gate mark in the middle. There is a heat ring around the entire circumference. The inside of the skillet is smooth but the sides, bottom and handle have some rougher forging imperfections that make it seem like the skillet is very old and more of a utilitarian tool unlike a fine Griswold or Wagner. From my understanding, Griswold made Victors from 1900-1910. I have not seen any with gate marks and believe that the gate mark indicates that it is pre 1890. I haven't seen anything like this one online, does anyone have any idea about this skillet?
 

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Hmmm, I just a thread about recasts on this forum. Seems like an interesting way to do things. Are recasts usually done by a the company like Griswold, Victor etc. or are these done by other foundries? Is there any way to date a recast such as this one?
 
The assumption with the recasts that make no attempt to hide the original maker is that a small foundry or an individual with access to the required resources was responsible. Dating could be anywhere from shortly after the original pan it was cast from was made up to today.
 
There apparently is some debate as to whether these Victor skillets were made by Griswold and whether or not they were recasts. I lean toward the side that says they weren't made by Griswold, but I don't know that they were recasts, either. Seems like I read somewhere they were made by someone else, but I don't remember where I read it and can't provide a reference to it.

I don't believe it was made by Griswold because of the bottom gate. Griswold only made a couple of things that were bottom gated and one of those was a tea pot/kettle. I've never seen or heard of a bottom gated skillet made by Griswold. Not saying they didn't make a bottom gated skillet, but I haven't seen or heard of one-----yet.
 
I don't think there's a debate over these particular bottom gated "Victor" being Griswold or recasts. The ones that people usually erroneously assume to be Griswold are the Victor odorless skillets, which also happen to be bottom gated.
 
I recently purchased a victor skillet in Mississippi with an 8 and a gate mark and it looks exactly the same. I’ve been looking all over the internet to find out if any others existed. This was the first one I’ve seen. I’m very curious as to why there have been only a few and only the 8.
 
Recasts are by their nature something produced on a far smaller scale than the product of an established commercial foundry enterprise. Of all the CI skiilets made and sold, the size 8 would have to be the most popular, so that size being used for a recast shouldn't be too surprising. On the other hand, recasts seem numerous enough that one probably shouldn't assume that two recasts made from Griswold Victor #8 skillets were made by the same individual or entity.
 
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