Identifying CI Coffee Roaster

[alanhayes]

[size=9]First I'll confess that I am not a cast iron collector, though I have a couple pots and pans handed down to me from the ancestors and I have several tons of cast iron printing equipment out back.

I am a home coffee roaster and keep an eye out for old things with cranks and as a consequence recently  acquired the object pictured here:

http://www.ahayesphoto.com/coffeeroaster/600/index.htm

I found this at an antique shop in New Lebanon, New York, and was told by the shop owner that it had belonged to a professor at Williams College (nearby in Williamstown, MA) who was a collector. It seems to be complete and in quite good shape. I removed the bolted on top to clean and examine it and no identifying marks other than the 19 cast into the inside of the lid.

I'm curious mostly about the age and who the manufacturer might be, less so in the value, as I am using it to roast my coffee and am very pleased with its performance.

It's a great piece of cast iron, and like so many other such, functions better than its modern replacements!

Thanks in advance for any information anyone might have on this![/size]

[Clark Rader]

Welcome Alan, sorry can't help you, but that is a nice looking piece of cast iron. We all collect iron. That is a nice coffee roaster.
cast iron is cast iron
clark

[alanhayes]

Yeah, cast iron really is lovely stuff, in all sorts of manifestations. Picking up this piece has got me thinking about the other old cookware I have. I've learned a lot on this site already that should be handy just for taking proper care of the family heirlooms. I guess this coffee roaster must be a fairly obscure piece.

Anyone care to venture a guess as to how old it might be? It looks to me like late 19th c. design and technology, but I know that hardware and castings in particular can be deceptively old fashioned looking

[Harry Riva]

I bought one of these roasters a few years back and there was some conversation about it on the members side. Obviously it was made to sit in a stove eye which is unusual as roasters go and a few experts put it as probably being German made. Mine has a few different touches than yours and I wish mine was as well preserved as yours but it's the same maker. Neat old roaster.
Harry