Wagner Mfg. Co.

The Wagner Manufacturing Company — Sidney, Ohio

Researched & written by Ethan Trex, a cast-iron cook & collector. · Reviewed August 2026

Active 1881/91–1957 (independent) Trademark WAGNER WARE (name cast in the bottom) Type Manufacturer — skillets, griddles, kettles, waffle irons

Wagner is Griswold’s great rival—and, in the end, its owner. Founded by the four Wagner brothers at Sidney, Ohio (an 1881 date the county history records, an 1891 date the collectors keep),^W10 the firm built its name on smooth, thin, high-grade cast iron. In its own words, before Wagner’s ware arrived “almost all of the cooking utensils used in America were crude and cheap … generally made by unskilled foundry labor or in the prisons.”^W1 Two details tie it to Griswold at both ends: the earliest Wagner skillets carry a faint ERIE ghost—Wagner cast its first patterns off borrowed Griswold pans^W6—and in 1957 Wagner bought Griswold outright and cast its marks at Sidney. Where Griswold’s early books were priced, though, Wagner’s were specs-only: it catalogued the No. 8 skillet down to its 8⅞-inch bottom but quoted the price only “upon application.”^W1 Most useful to a collector, this page shows how to date a Wagner piece by its mark.

↔ Companion pages: Griswold · Lodge · Wapak · Sidney · Favorite · BSR · Atlanta · CHF

✓ Primary — opened directly, text quoted ~ Corroborated — reliable collector authority, no primary ⚑ To transcribe — source digitized, figure pending

Documented offerings & facts

Date	Attribute	Value	Source	Confidence
1881/91	Founded at Sidney, Ohio identity	The four Wagner brothers — William, Milton, Bernard & Louis — with R. O. Bingham as founding superintendent. 1881 (county history) vs. 1891 (collector/company consensus) — unresolved.	W10	✓ primary
c.1891	Why Wagner mattered heritage	Before its high-grade iron, cooking utensils were “crude and cheap … generally made by unskilled foundry labor or in the prisons.” (1892: first complete nickel-plated line; then cast aluminum.)	W1 1924 cat.	✓ primary
1924	The No. 8 skillet — spec’d, never priced◆ flagship price	8⅞ in. bottom (cat. #1058, old No. 8) — but “Prices quoted upon application.” The exact inverse of Griswold’s priced No. 8.	W1 1924 cat. p.56	✓ primary
1924	The mark, per the maker identity	“The name Wagner is cast on the bottom of each piece of ware. See that you get no other.”	W1 1924 cat. p.55	✓ primary
1896	Waffle irons — the founding product innovation	Wagner’s earliest patents are waffle irons (1896, 1910, 1911). Co-founder B. P. Wagner & supt. R. O. Bingham named.	W2 US 569,444	✓ primary
1921	Self-basting Dutch-oven lid patented innovation	The mirror of Griswold’s 1920 lid, eleven months later. “MAR 8 1921” cast into Wagner lids.	W3 US 1,370,863	✓ primary
1915	Grand Prize, world’s fairs commerce	Won the Grand Prize at both the San Diego & San Francisco expositions of 1915 (hence the “Grand Prize” kettle).	W1	✓ primary
1890s	Ghost marks = the ERIE (Griswold) mark dating	Early Wagner cast its patterns off borrowed Griswold “Erie” pans — a faint ERIE ghost under a Wagner skillet marks it earliest.	W6	~ corroborated
1924	Specs-only cataloguing market structure	Every piece listed by number, size, bottom diameter & shipping weight — but “Prices quoted upon application.”	W1	✓ primary
1957	Wagner absorbs Griswold identity	By 1952 a Randall Co. division; in 1957 it bought Griswold and cast Griswold marks at Sidney. Then Textron (1959), General Housewares (1969).	W8	~ corroborated

The skillet spec grid — Wagner catalogued everything but the price

Wagner Ware 1924 Catalogue No. 30, p.56: Cast Iron Skillets, Regular Skillet, De Luxe Finish — catalogue-number table

Read straight off the 1924 catalogue, p.56.^W1 This is the exact inverse of the Griswold page: Wagner specifies the skillet to the eighth-inch — catalogue number, traditional size, bottom diameter, shipping weight — then withholds the price (“Prices quoted upon application”).

The 4-digit catalogue number is itself a dating tool: a bare incised size (“8”) is the older convention; a 1050-series number (1058) means 1924 or later.

Cat. No.	Old No. (size)	Bottom diam.	Ship wt./bbl.	Per bbl.
1052	2	4⅞ in.	600 lbs	400
1053	3	5½ in.	525 lbs	300
1054	4	5⅞ in.	490 lbs	225
1055	5	6¾ in.	480 lbs	165
1056	6	7½ in.	470 lbs	120
1057	7	8¼ in.	460 lbs	110
1058	8 ◆	8⅞ in.	450 lbs	100
1059	9	9¾ in.	440 lbs	75
1060	10	10¼ in.	430 lbs	65
1061	11	10⅞ in.	420 lbs	55
1062	12	11¾ in.	400 lbs	50
1063	13	12 in.	140 lbs	12/box
1064	14	13 in.	160 lbs	12/box

“Numbers 1063 and 1064 have opposite side handles for ease in lifting.” The Old Number is the traditional stove-hole size shared across makers, so a Wagner No. 8 ≈ a Griswold No. 8. Beyond the Regular Skillet, the same section catalogues Wood-Handled, Extra-Deep & Shallow skillets, Handled/Bailed/Long griddles, and Scotch/Yankee bowls & Maslin kettles — all specs, no prices. (Wagner’s celebrated aluminum Colonial tea kettle is out of scope here.)

Dating a piece by its mark — the collector’s first question

For its first thirty years the mark was simply the word WAGNER; then the town, then “WARE,” then the famous stylized fancy-“W” logo. The evolution — and a few primary anchors — brackets almost any piece.

The primary anchors (everything else is best-estimate)

4-digit catalogue numbers = 1924+. A bare size (“8”) is older; a 1050-series number (1058) is 1924 or later.^W1
“Wagner Ware” trademark first use Dec. 1915 — the floor for the “WARE” brand.^W5
Patent dates cast into pieces — Dutch-oven lid “MAR 8 1921”; waffle irons 1896/1910/1911.^W3

Honest caveat. The chronology below is collector scholarship (castironcollector.com, W6); its date ranges are the site’s own “best estimates.” Only the anchors above are primary.

Era	Mark	Tells
1890s	Block “WAGNER” (straight), no WARE/SIDNEY	Earliest. A faint “ERIE” ghost bleeding through → earliest Wagner (patterns cast off borrowed Griswold pans).
1891–1910	Arc “WAGNER” (arched)	The arched bare-name mark; migrates between 12 o’clock and centre.
1895–1920	“WAGNER / SIDNEY, O.” (no WARE)	Town line added below the name, before the “Wagner Ware” brand.
c.1914–1920s	“WAGNER WARE” — “WARE” inserted into existing patterns	The brand begins (~1914); inserted “WARE” leaves pattern artifacts. TM first use Dec 1915.
1922–1959	Stylized fancy-“W” over “WAGNER WARE / SIDNEY -O-”	The classic mark. ~1924–35 it sits centred on skillets #4–#8 (heat ring + 4-digit catalogue number).
1924–1934	“Pie Logo” — stylized logo in a wedge border, “CAST IRON SKILLET” at 6 o’clock	The most collectible Wagner mark; ~10-year run.
post-1959	Stylized logo with “SIDNEY -O-” removed	Casting had moved to Cincinnati under Textron/Randall.
post-1969	Add General Housewares logo; markings flip 180°	Outside the collectible window. “MADE IN U.S.A.” is generally later (post-1960s).

The best tells at a glance

Heat ring present → earlier (for wood/coal stove eyes); smooth bottom → ~1930+. An “ERIE” ghost under the pan → earliest Wagner. A 4-digit catalogue number → 1924+. “SIDNEY -O-” present → pre-1959; gone → after. “MADE IN U.S.A.” → later still.

What a Wagner is worth today — recent eBay sales

◆ Market data — vetted completed salesNot an appraisal or a catalog price.

Wagner never printed prices in its catalogues, so there’s no 1888-style then-and-now here — just what its cast iron sells for now.

No. 8 skillet — Wagner Ware, marked vintage

c. 1920s–1950s (stylized 'WAGNER WARE / SIDNEY -O-')

$35–$55

median $42 · 157 sales

No. 6 skillet — Wagner Ware, marked vintage

c. 1920s–1950s

$25–$44

median $32 · 70 sales

No. 10 skillet — Wagner Ware, marked vintage

c. 1920s–1950s

$40–$80

median $50 · 105 sales

No. 8 Dutch oven (with self-basting lid)

post-1921 ('MAR 8 1921' self-basting lid, patent US 1,370,863)

$86–$124

median $94 · 12 sales thin

'Pie Logo' skillet (the premium mark)

c. 1924–1934 (stylized logo in a wedge/pie border)

$65–$115

median $75 · 13 sales thin

Waffle iron (marked, with base)

1896–1940s (Wagner's founding product, the ball-joint low base)

$99–$178

median $120 · 50 sales

How to read this. Each range is the middle half (25th–75th percentile) of recent completed eBay sales for vetted, comparable pieces — reproductions, damaged pieces, multi-item lots, other makers and the rarest hand-vetted pieces are filtered out before the range is computed. Cast-iron value swings hard on condition and mark, so treat these as ballparks for clean, common pieces, not appraisals. Source: vetted eBay completed sales via SoldComps; May–Aug 2026.

In period print

Wagner Mfg. Co. of Sidney, Ohio built its name on iron that was cast, not stamped — “Wagner Ware” skillets and kettles sold across the country by the number. Each quote was read on the original page; all are public-domain newspapers.

Advertisement · 1917

“cast instead of stamped, utensils of this ware heat uniformly.”

“Wagner Polished Cast Iron Ware” — made, the ad says, of the best grade of iron to be had.

The Daily Missoulian, Mont. · Feb. 11, 1917. Library of Congress →

Advertisement · 1920

“10 inch Wagner Ware, Wood Handle $1.33.”

A hardware column’s cast-skillet ladder — plain cast at 33c and 87c, Wagner Ware above it.

The Montgomery Advertiser, Ala. · Feb. 29, 1920. Library of Congress →

Advertisement · 1919

“No. 8 Skillet. Reg. price $1.25 — 88c.”

Wagner Ware in a department-store sale, its cast skillets marked down by the number.

Casper Daily Tribune, Wyo. · May 28, 1919. Library of Congress →

Advertisement · 1925

“Everything in Wagner Ware.”

A general store leads with the line by name — the big ‘Drip Drop Roaster’ at $3.79.

Grand Prairie News, Stuttgart, Ark. · June 4, 1925. Library of Congress →

Sources

primary · catalogue (specs)
The Wagner Mfg. Co., Wagner Ware … Catalogue Number Thirty (1924), Sidney, Ohio — heritage, the three lines, and the cast-iron “De Luxe Finish” spec grids (skillets p.56); no prices (“Prices quoted upon application”). Internet Archive — wagner-ware-aluminum-cookware-1924. details public domain
primary · US patent
US 569,444 — “Waffle-Iron”. R. O. Bingham & B. P. Wagner, assrs. to “The Wagner Manufacturing Company, Sidney, Ohio.” Granted Oct. 13, 1896 — the earliest corporate-name anchor. Google Patents
primary · US patent
US 1,370,863 — “Cover for dutch ovens and the like” (self-basting lid). Bernard P. Wagner / Wagner Mfg Co. Granted Mar. 8, 1921 — the mirror of Griswold’s Feb-10-1920 lid; date cast into Wagner lids. Google Patents
primary · US trademark
Trademark WAGNER WARE (Reg. 1,131,821) — a later re-registration asserting first use Dec. 1915, the citable anchor for the brand name. USPTO/Justia
secondary · collector authority
castironcollector.com — “Evolution of the Wagner Trademark” (wagnertm.php), history & the Wardway/Long Life notes. The dating chronology & the ERIE-ghost tell; best-estimate ranges. wagnertm.php
secondary · collector society
Wagner & Griswold Society (WAGS) — the Randall/Textron/General Housewares chain and the Sidney-foundry fate. wag-society.org
primary · county history
History of Shelby County, Ohio (1913), “Wagner Hollow-Ware Company,” pp.188-191 — names the four founding brothers & supt. R. O. Bingham and states the plant was “founded … in 1881” (image-verified). Internet Archive — historyofshelbyc00hitc. details public domain

Wagner Ware 1924 Catalogue No. 30 cover — Cast Aluminum, Polished Iron, Nickel Plated

1913 History of Shelby County, Ohio, reading ‘In 1881 the Wagner brothers founded this plant’

The receipts. Left: the 1924 Catalogue No. 30 (W1) — “Cast Aluminum · Polished Iron · Nickel Plated · Wagner Ware,” the specs-only book at the heart of this page. Right: the 1913 History of Shelby County (W10), reading “In 1881 the Wagner brothers founded this plant” — the primary date the collectors’ 1891 quietly disagrees with.

Part of a citation-first cast-iron cookware reference. Companion: Griswold. Confidence flags: ✓ primary (opened & quoted) · ~ corroborated (reliable collector authority) · ⚑ to transcribe. Pre-1930 catalogs, patents & gazettes are public domain.