Skillets and Covers

[Jerry Cermack]

I've heard several times that skillets were not sold with lids.  Did they sell them as sets too? Anyone know when they started selling them in boxes?  And were the lids sold separate in boxes too?  I've seen boxes on Ebay for the enameled skillets and as I remember, the box was for bulk shipment of several skillets?

[junkswap]

Another question. When C.B posted The Chrome? chicken fryer he said he also had the box it came in. First C.B. is the box for the skillet & lid? Skillet only, Lid only?
As Jerry said there has been much mention of so many skillets per barrel. So was it only the chrome & nickle that came in box sets?
Could Griswold have sold there items by the barrel then had another company furnish boxes to the stores to put sets in?

B/W

[Steve_Stephens]

I'm sure things changes thoughout the years.  In the 30's through 50's Griswold was making a lot of new style pieces and dropping old ones.  We don't have many catalogs from those years to see what they offered and how they were packaged.  For regular skillets I would say that Griswold always sold the skillet separate from the cover.  Griswold's catalogs show skillets separate from covers.  Even the hammered covers were, I think, sold separately and that's why you often see skillets with no covers.  Some pieces were made to be used with a cover most of the time so covers may have been included with them.  As for boxes, I have no idea.

Steve

[loebster]

Speculation not knowledge. I have heard that the Skillet racks were given out for buying a set of skillets. I would guess that skillets were sold in a variety of packages. and the cheapest were in sets like 3, 5, 6,7,8, and 9 plus a rack  or  in bulk. A box of 4 #8 for example. So I would guess that most skillets were bought by retailers in either sets of in bulk. And if someone specificly ordered a pan with a cover it may be shipped in it's own dedicated box. Or the retailer may have just ordered a set and broke it up for the purchase. Due to this reasoning a Chrome or Nickled skillet whould be more lilkely to have it's own special box. As the plain skillets were a little cheaper, and more lilkely to be ordered in sets or bulk. A retailer is not going to want to order a set of Chrome skillets which they will have to sell the extras at a premium over plain skillets.  Just like they would not want to have 3 extra chrome skillets to sell at a premium. Of course some retailers may have gone thru many crome skillets in a months so they would buy in bulk also. This is not to speculat that no chrome or nickled skillet were bought in bulk. But I would guess it would be more likely to hapen that way.

This would also help explain why the # 4 is a rarer skillet. The most common set sold did not include the #4. This is all speculation. There are probibly smarter people that will chime in who actualy have boxes. I am looking farward to hearing what they have to say.