Author Topic: Help on a Wagner Ware Skillet!!  (Read 6830 times)

homeskillet

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Help on a Wagner Ware Skillet!!
« on: April 24, 2006, 12:04:57 AM »
Hello, I am new to the site, and have a few questions about a large Wagner Ware skillet I picked up at a local auction. How do I find the diameter measurement? Is it from the inside of the skillet or the outside? Also, how do I find out the age of the skillet? I don't see any model markings on it, other than the Wagner Ware logo, Sydney and the letter "O". My skillet looks very similar to a skillet that sold on ebay, here is the link address...

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-Old-Wagner-Ware-No-13A-Cast-Iron-Skillet-Look_W0QQitemZ6270363440QQcategoryZ976QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks, Justin

Steve_Stephens

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Re: Help on a Wagner Ware Skillet!!
« Reply #1 on: April 24, 2006, 12:16:41 AM »
Welcome Justin.  I hope I am justin time with my answer and that others will follow with more information.  If your skillet has the size number on the bottom instead of a four digit catalog number the pan was made before 1924 when the catalog numbers began to be cast into the pan.  The trademark with the large W common to Wagner and Ware started right around 1915.  Diameter is measured anywhere you want to measure it.  A 1924 Wagner catalog lists the diameter of the bottom of skillets and, in the case of a No.13, the dia. is listed as 12".  For any style or variation of skillet Wagner probably made the pan for a number of years so pinpointing hte exact age is nearly impossible.  A circa date is about as close as we can get.  On the auction you link to it says that pan was made in 1924.  Unless the seller knows when it was bought new and that the selling party had new stock he really doesn't know when the pan was made.  That pan has no catalog number which should have been included on the pan by 1924 but not necessarily so.

Steve

homeskillet

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Re: Help on a Wagner Ware Skillet!!
« Reply #2 on: April 25, 2006, 01:21:22 AM »
Thanks Steve!! I cleaned off the skillet today and found "14A" at the bottom. I'm assuming 14" diameter? Any way of placing a value on my find? Thanks, Justin

Steve_Stephens

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Re: Help on a Wagner Ware Skillet!!
« Reply #3 on: April 25, 2006, 03:22:33 AM »
Quote
... found "14A" at the bottom. I'm assuming 14" diameter?
No.  Older skillets are sized by trade numbers which have no bearing on size in inches necessarily.  Some pans may correlate inches to size like the No.20 Griswold which happens to be 20 inches in diameter (and 20 lbs. heavy) but few if any others do.  Newer skillets c.1960's and later are often sized in "inches" and will usually be so marked.  I don't know if your 14 might equal 14" in dia. but that's not what the maker intended.  Big skillets those are.

Steve

maria

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Re: Help on a Wagner Ware Skillet!!
« Reply #4 on: April 26, 2006, 03:50:35 PM »
What a nice find. I hope you keep it and use it... As long as you take good care of it and give it lots of love (and cook lots of bacon in it) it will love you back and will just keep getting more valuable with the years.