Favorite Piqua Ware No. 3 Skillet
SSC MUSEUM COLLECTION
Catalog No. SSC-FPW-SKL-3-Smiley-001
Smiley Face Logo | Sits Flat | Piqua, Ohio
Circa 1916–1935 • Favorite Stove & Range Co.
Bottom view showing the iconic Favorite Piqua Ware Smiley logo and size marking “3.”
This Favorite Piqua Ware No. 3 skillet is one of the most recognizable pieces in the Favorite Stove & Range Company’s cookware legacy. Bearing the beloved “Smiley” logo—a curved flourish beneath the company name that has charmed collectors for decades—this small skillet represents the final era of hollow ware production from one of Ohio’s most significant but often overlooked foundries. Cast in Piqua, Ohio between approximately 1916 and 1935, this piece is part of the Steve’s Seasoned Classics museum collection, where it stands alongside pieces from all four brands produced under the Favorite Stove & Range umbrella: Favorite Piqua Ware, Columbus Hollow Ware, Miami, and Puritan.
The No. 3 is the smallest standard skillet Favorite produced in significant quantities. At roughly 6¾ inches across the cooking surface and just over 10½ inches in overall length, it is the perfect single-egg, single-serving pan—the kind of piece a farm wife in 1920s Ohio would have reached for every morning without thinking twice. Nearly a century later, it still sits flat, cooks beautifully, and carries the unmistakable quality of a foundry that rivaled Griswold and Wagner in craftsmanship, if not in name recognition.
Cooking surface: smooth, well-seasoned, with dual pour spouts and a teardrop-shaped hanging hole in the handle.
Piece Details
Manufacturer
Favorite Stove & Range Co.
Brand
Favorite Piqua Ware
Piece Type
Skillet
Size Number
No. 3
Logo Variant
Smiley Face Logo
Approximate Dimensions
6¾” diameter × 10½” overall length × 1¼” deep
Date of Manufacture
Circa 1916–1935
Place of Manufacture
Piqua, Miami County, Ohio
Condition
Sits flat, no cracks, no chips, fully seasoned
Acquisition Date
February 1, 2026
Acquisition Source
eBay — Seller: pmfarm8
eBay Item Number
188010438857
Order Number
14-14174-63467
Purchase Price
$40.00 item + $11.89 shipping + $4.40 tax = $56.29 total
SSC Catalog Number
SSC-FPW-SKL-3-Smiley-001
Close-up of the Smiley logo: “FAVORITE / PIQUA / WARE” with the distinctive curved flourish beneath, and size number “3” below.
The Company: From Cincinnati to “The Favorite City”
The story of this skillet begins not in Piqua, but in Cincinnati. In 1848, William C. Davis founded W.C. Davis & Company, a stove and hollow ware manufacturer on the banks of the Ohio River. After the Civil War, the firm reorganized as Great Western Stove Works. In 1872, a man named William King Boal purchased a partial ownership in the company, and by 1880 he had taken full control, renaming it the Favorite Stove Works.
Boal was an ambitious industrialist. When the Piqua Board of Trade came calling in 1886 with an extraordinary offer—eight free acres of land, eight new brick factory buildings, free natural gas for ten years, and railroad transport for 250 freight cars of equipment—Boal saw his opportunity. He signed the contract on June 25, 1886, and by February 1889, the Favorite Stove & Range Company of Piqua, Ohio officially began production with over 250 employees.
The impact on Piqua was immediate and profound. The company became the city’s largest manufacturer. The community became known as “The Favorite City.” Workers settled on the hill west of the factory on College Street, and the neighborhood became “Favorite Hill.” By 1896, the company employed over 300 workers and produced more than 50,000 stoves per year. At its peak, the workforce grew to between 550 and 600 employees.
William King Boal died on January 2, 1916 at age 84. His son, William Stanhope Boal, succeeded him as president and significantly expanded the production of hollow ware—the cast iron cookware we collect today. This expansion under the younger Boal is likely when the Smiley logo made its appearance on pieces like this No. 3 skillet.
The Great Depression hit the company hard. William Stanhope Boal died on December 17, 1933. The firm reorganized under William C. Katker, who became the fourth company president, but it was too late. By 1935, Favorite Stove & Range had been liquidated. The Foster Stove Company of Ironton, Ohio purchased the patents, patterns, dies, and trademarks. Katker continued producing limited items under the name Favorite Manufacturing Company, but the golden age of Favorite Piqua Ware had ended.
Profile view showing the characteristic thin walls, heat ring, and graceful handle proportions of Favorite Piqua Ware.
The Smiley Logo: Favorite’s Most Beloved Mark
Favorite Stove & Range used approximately eight different logos on its cookware over the years. The earliest pieces bear a simple block letter trademark, and the consensus among collectors and researchers is that the block logo represents the company’s first hollow ware production. As the years progressed, the logos became more stylized, culminating in the mark that has become the most recognized and beloved: the Smiley.
The Smiley logo features “FAVORITE” arched across the top in an elegant serif font, with “PIQUA” centered below it, and “WARE” beneath that. What gives the logo its nickname is the graceful curved line that sweeps beneath the text—a decorative flourish that, with a little imagination, resembles a gentle smile. The lettering is thinner than the earlier “stylized” logo variant, giving it a refined, almost delicate appearance that belies the rugged iron it’s cast into.
On this No. 3 skillet, the Smiley logo is positioned at the 12 o’clock position on the bottom of the pan, with the size number “3” cast below at approximately the 6 o’clock position. The casting is crisp and well-defined—evidence of careful pattern work and quality sand molding at the Piqua foundry.
Among collectors, the Smiley logo is the most commonly found of all the Favorite Piqua Ware trademarks, which is fortunate for those of us who appreciate its charm. It appears across all sizes of skillets as well as on griddles, Dutch ovens, waffle irons, and other hollow ware forms. The BoonieHicks reference guide notes that the No. 3 skillet is particularly associated with the “classic” variant of the Favorite Piqua Ware logo, making this piece a textbook example of the brand.
The Favorite Family: Four Brands, One Foundry
What many casual collectors do not realize is that Favorite Piqua Ware was only one of several brand names produced under the Favorite Stove & Range umbrella. The complete family includes four distinct brands, each serving a different market segment—all cast in the same foundry buildings on College Street in Piqua:
Favorite Piqua Ware — The flagship brand. Premium quality hollow ware bearing the company’s own name, produced under various logos including the block letter, stylized, and Smiley variants. This was the brand that appeared in the company’s own advertising and catalogs.
Columbus Hollow Ware (“The Favorite”) — A subsidiary operation producing skillets marked “The Favorite” in Columbus, Ohio from approximately 1882 to 1902. These pieces are among the earliest in the Favorite corporate lineage and are highly sought by collectors.
Miami — The budget-friendly brand, marked with a distinctive diamond logo containing the word “MIAMI.” Named after Miami County, where Piqua is located, these pieces offered the same quality casting at a lower price point. Some Miami pieces also carry the Smiley logo, creating a dual-logo variant prized by collectors.
Puritan — A private-label brand manufactured for Sears, Roebuck & Co. These pieces were sold through the Sears catalog and department stores, bringing Favorite’s casting quality to a nationwide retail audience under a store-exclusive name.
The Steve’s Seasoned Classics museum collection includes documented pieces from all four of these brands—a distinction we believe makes SSC the first and only online resource to present the complete Favorite Stove & Range family under one roof, with provenance documentation and photography for each piece.
Physical Characteristics & Construction
Favorite Piqua Ware skillets are consistently praised by collectors for their light weight, thin walls, and smooth cooking surfaces—qualities that place them in the same conversation as Griswold and Wagner, often at a fraction of the collector’s market price. This No. 3 exemplifies all of those traits.
The cooking surface is glassy smooth, the result of careful finishing at the foundry. Unlike modern cast iron, which is often left with a rough, pebbly texture from the casting sand, Favorite’s pieces were ground and polished before leaving the factory. The dual pour spouts are symmetrically formed, allowing both right-handed and left-handed cooks to pour with ease. The handle features the classic teardrop hanging hole, a practical design element from an era when kitchen storage meant hanging pans on nails driven into a wall or the side of a wood stove.
The bottom of the skillet features a raised heat ring around the outer edge, designed to sit securely on the flat cooking eyes of wood- and coal-burning stoves. This heat ring is one of the telltale signs of pre-1940s cast iron manufacturing—by mid-century, most foundries had transitioned to flat-bottomed designs for compatibility with gas and electric ranges. The presence of a heat ring on this piece helps confirm its production date within the 1916–1935 window.
Collector’s Context
The No. 3 is a popular size among Favorite Piqua Ware collectors because it occupies a sweet spot: small enough to be affordable (compared to the larger and rarer sizes), yet distinctive enough to showcase the brand’s quality. It is far more common than the extremely rare No. 1 or No. 2, but less ubiquitous than the No. 8, which was the standard household workhorse size.
For a collector building a Favorite Piqua Ware Smiley set, the No. 3 is typically one of the first pieces acquired. In the Steve’s Seasoned Classics collection, it joins Smiley-logo siblings in sizes 5, 5B, 6, 7, and 8—forming one of the more comprehensive Smiley runs assembled in private hands. Combined with our Miami dual-logo Nos. 7 and 8, Puritan No. 8, Columbus Hollow Ware matched set of Nos. 8 through 12, a Smiley bread stick pan, and a Columbus Hollow Ware No. 8 kettle, SSC’s Favorite family collection spans the full breadth of the company’s hollow ware output.
Pricing for Favorite Piqua Ware has historically been favorable compared to equivalent Griswold or Wagner pieces. A No. 3 Smiley in good condition typically trades in the $30–$60 range, while a comparable Griswold No. 3 might command two to three times that amount. This value proposition is one of the reasons Favorite Piqua Ware has gained a following among collectors who appreciate quality iron without the premium associated with the most recognized names.
Provenance & Acquisition
This No. 3 skillet was acquired on February 1, 2026, via eBay from seller pmfarm8, under eBay item number 188010438857 (order 14-14174-63467). The listing described it as a “Favorite Piqua Ware No. 3 Skillet Smiley Face Logo Sits Flat.” The total acquisition cost was $56.29, comprising $40.00 for the item, $11.89 for USPS Ground Advantage shipping, and $4.40 in sales tax. The piece arrived well-packed and in the condition described: no cracks, no chips, sits flat on all surfaces, with a well-established seasoning.
Corporate Timeline: From W.C. Davis to Liquidation
1848
William C. Davis founds W.C. Davis & Company in Cincinnati, Ohio, manufacturing stoves and hollow ware.
1865
After the Civil War, the firm reorganizes as Great Western Stove Works.
1872
William King Boal purchases partial ownership of Great Western Stove Works.
1880
Boal assumes full control after Davis’s retirement, renames the company Favorite Stove Works.
1881
The Favorite Stove Works Company is formally organized with Boal as President and Samuel P. Cheseldine as Secretary and Treasurer.
1882
Columbus Hollow Ware Company begins operations, producing skillets marked “The Favorite.”
1886
Boal signs contract with the Piqua Board of Trade to relocate the foundry.
1889
Favorite Stove & Range Company of Piqua, Ohio begins production on February 25 with 250+ employees in eight brick buildings on College Street.
1893
Stanhope Boal registers the “Favorite” trademark.
1896
Workforce exceeds 300; annual production surpasses 50,000 stoves.
1902
Columbus Hollow Ware Company ceases operations.
1916
William King Boal dies January 2 at age 84. His son William Stanhope Boal succeeds him and expands hollow ware production significantly.
1919
A labor strike lasting eleven days hits the plant, with workers demanding a 25% wage increase.
1923
William Stanhope Boal becomes Chairman of the Board.
1928
William C. Katker becomes the fourth company president.
1933
William Stanhope Boal dies December 17. The Great Depression devastates sales.
1935
Favorite Stove & Range is liquidated. Foster Stove Company of Ironton, Ohio purchases patents, patterns, dies, and trademarks.
Why This Piece Matters
A No. 3 Favorite Piqua Ware skillet is not the rarest piece of American cast iron, nor the most expensive. What it is, however, is a beautifully made, historically significant artifact from a foundry that helped define an entire Ohio community—a foundry whose products rivaled the best in the country, even if its name never achieved the same collector recognition as Griswold or Wagner.
Every piece in the Steve’s Seasoned Classics collection tells a story. This one tells the story of William King Boal, a Cincinnati foundry man who bet everything on a small Ohio town and built an empire that employed hundreds and earned Piqua a nickname that endures to this day. It tells the story of a company that made four brands of cookware—premium and budget, wholesale and private-label—all under one roof. And it tells the story of American manufacturing in the first third of the twentieth century: innovation, expansion, labor strife, depression, and ultimately, closure.
The Smiley logo smiles back at us across roughly a hundred years. The iron endures. The story deserves to be told.
Sources & Further Reading
CastIronCollector.com — Favorite Stove & Range Co. reference page and collector forums.
BoonieHicks.com — “Guide to Favorite Piqua Ware: Favorite Stove and Range Co.”
CastIronCanada.com — “Favorite Stove and Range History” — primary source research on W.C. Davis lineage.
Piqua Public Library Local History Department — “Favorite Stove” historical article, including Lois J. Fair contributions.
1909 History of Miami County, Ohio — Troy Historical Society biography entry for the Favorite Stove & Range Co.
Wikipedia — “Favorite Stove” article with community impact details.
About Steve’s Seasoned Classics
Steve’s Seasoned Classics is an online museum dedicated to preserving and documenting the heritage of American cast iron cookware, with a focus on Ohio foundry pieces from the 19th and early 20th centuries. The SSC collection features over 140 pieces with detailed provenance, historical research, and photography for each item.
