Garage Sale Find: Griswold Cast Iron Kitchenware

     This week's best garage sale deal was a nice lot of Griswold Cast Iron.  Griswold manufactured Cast Iron pieces from 1865 to 1957.  The first and oldest pieces will be marked simply Erie, over the years the name Griswold and a trademark emblem was added. 
     Collectors always look for the words "Erie", "Erie, PA" or "Erie, PA USA", this identifies the pieces as being the oldest and also of being produced by the original manufacturer.  
     After the company sold in 1957 other manufacturers produced under the Griswold name, however, if you are collecting cast iron always look for the Erie name as it is much more valuable.    
     Wikipedia has some great  information on the various logo's throughout the years.  Also, if you do happen to find some Griswold at a yard sale or garage sale don't try to clean it up until you read about the procedures of cleaning cast iron.
      Flea Markets, estate sales, yard sales, garage sales and of course eBay are the best places to find the older Griswold.  I paid $50 for all these pieces and will probably make anywhere from $250 to $300 when I sell them. 

The above trivet is a vintage Griswold cast iron star trivet.  It's marked  Erie, PA

     Below is a Griswold cast iron skillet marked #10  it a Griswold Skillet # 716, notice the Griswold lettering is slanted inside the emblem.  Griswold with  italic lettering was produced from 1897 - 1920. It is also marked Erie.

The most interesting find is this Griswold cast iron Plett Pan shown below.  This is a vintage piece, probably from the 1950's.  The underside reads NO 34, GRISWOLD inside the Griswold emblem, also there is the number 2980 with an A.
     The Plett Pan is a Swedish pancake griddle, it can make 7 perfectly round pancakes each 3 1/4" diameter.   The pan itself  is approximately 9  1/2" in diameter.  The letter "A" makes this the first lettered Plett Pan that Griswold made. 
     This was a very good deal at $50 for all three pieces!!!