Sidney Hollow Ware display stand

[carpenter]

Just found this this weekend and took it to the basement and put it to good use.It looks just like the one on pg.251 of the blue book but that one is a WAGNER. They must have used the same pattern but changed the name to WAGNER after WAGNER bought out SIDNEY. It looks full in the picture but it has some of the arms broken off. I am going to try and make some new ones out of steel and put them back on if I can get everything apart.

[Steve_Stephens]

Joe,
I think your Sidney rack may be a Wagner rack changed to read Sidney after Wagner bought Sidney Hollow Ware Co.  The rack shows up in a "SIDNEY" WARE catalog No.20 from the Sidney Hollow Ware Co. but all of the pieces in the catalog are, obviously, Wagner pieces.   These racks would be provided to their customers at cost to manufacture them which was $2.50.   The racks also came as part of an assortment of ironware.  Nice find there.

Steve

[Clark Rader]

Joe great find, nice photo, and good looking basement. clark

[carpenter]

Steve, what you are saying then is after WAGNER bought SIDNEY they made both lines for a while ? If so how long do you think they did so before discontinuing the SIDNEY line?            Thanks Clark, I do what I can.                                

[Steve_Stephens]

Joe,
I have wondered if the history of Sidney Hollow Ware Co. is entirely accurate in the blue book.  I'm referring to the lower, left paragraph on p.227 where it states that Sidney Hollow Ware was sold in 1903 back to Phillip Smith (the original owner who Wagner bought the company from in 1897).  If so then who was the owner of SHC when the catalog No.20 I have was printed?  This catalog seems pretty early as the smallest skillet is a No.6.  Griswold only added a No.5 in the late 1900's (before 1910, that is) so it's conceivable that the SHC catalog No.20 is from the 1900's (1900-1910).  If they put out one catalog per year then No.20 might be 20 years after 1886 (founding of SHC making hollow ware) which would be 1906 (see below).  That is a plausible year for the catalog but no date is in the catalog so it's only a guess.

Just read something in the catalog No.20:  "SIDNEY" WARE having passed its twentlyfirst year of existence, it justly ranks with the pioneer lines of High Grade Hollow ware."

So, this catalog is 21 years after the founding of Sidney Hollow Ware.  I don't know what exact year would be the first as the blue book, p.281, mentions 1886 and 1888 dates in regards to producing hollow ware.  This would make the catalog No.20 either 1907 or 1909.

By then the company was supposedly long ago sold back to Phillip Smith.  Perhaps not the name, though.  What was in existance in 1907-1909 seems to be just another Sidney, Ohio foundry making iron cookware and probably owned by Wagner.  What else could account for the catalog No.20 contents being identical to Wagner pieces?  Only the name on the bottom "SIDNEY" seems to differentiate the pieces from the "WAGNER" pieces from Wagner Mfg. Co.

I have an early c.1900 or a few years later possibly "SIDNEY" No. 2 oval roaster.  I can see where it looks like WAGNER above the SIDNEY was obliterated in the pattern or mold.  The roaster is identical to my No.2 "WAGNER" SIDNEY -0- oval roaster in the same size I have that is only a few years newer or of the next style with higher handles on the pot.  I think Wagner was operating two foundries in Sidney; one of which was the old Sidney Hollow Ware foundry in which they produced the same exact product as in their original and still operating foundry with the exception that the pieces were marked "SIDNEY" insead of "WAGNER" SIDNEY -0

I don't know when the "SIDNEY" line was discountinued nor why it was phased out.  Did that foundry close or was it sold?  Who knows?

Steve

[junkswap]

I have the d pan with the sidney 9 on the center band. So who made it? And when? I like the odd pans the best and would love to know!
B/w

[Steve_Stephens]

John,

I've been told, and believe it, that the Sidney script pieces are the earliest Sidney Hollow Ware pieces and predate those marked SIDNEY HOLLOW WARE CO.   The later Sidney marked pieces that correspond to Wagner pieces must be purely Wagner pieces but likely made in the old Sidney Hollow Ware foundry after Wagner acquired it.  In any case, I don't see how the later Sidney pieces as are shown in the c.1908 catalog are anything but pure Wagner pieces.

The No.2 oval roaster I have doesn't have a WAGNER ghost but has a different texture where what must have been "WAGNER" (what else could it have been?) was covered up on the pattern.  I don't know about the D pan you and Brian mention.  Maybe I haven't seen it.

Steve