🏛️ Maker & Markings

Brand: Wagner Ware
Foundry: Sidney, Ohio
Logo Style: Stylized Wagner Ware logo (Golden Era, 1920–1935)

Markings on Bottom:

• “WAGNER” (arched)

• “WARE” (centered beneath)

• “SIDNEY —O—” (straight-line dash-O-dash)

• Pattern Number: 1053 B

• Size Number: 3 (on handle)

Diameter: ~6⅜–6½ inches (standard for No. 3)
Bottom Style: Smooth
Handle Style: Open teardrop, late-era refined Wagner design
Weight: Light, thin-wall early 20th-century casting

This is one of Wagner’s most recognizable and widely used small skillets, produced during the company’s highest-quality period.

📜 Historical Background

The Wagner No. 3 skillet was a staple of the early-to-mid 20th-century American kitchen. While not rare in the way toy skillets or early arc-logo pieces are, it is historically important because:

• It was the everyday personal-size skillet in most households

• Perfect for frying one egg, melting butter, or reheating leftovers

• Often the first pan children learned to cook with

• Light enough for daily handling

• Represented Wagner’s peak engineering and consistency (1920–1935)

The 1053B pattern is part of Wagner’s refined production line, where mold updates improved consistency of logo depth, pour spouts, and handle geometry. The “B” suffix indicates a second-generation revision.

Collectors prize the 1053 series for their smooth interior machining, excellent balance, and elegant open-handle design.

🧭 The Stylized Wagner Ware Logo (1920–1935)

Your skillet displays the classic, highly collectible stylized Wagner Ware mark:

• Broad, sweeping “WAGNER”

• Clean “WARE” beneath

• “SIDNEY —O—” in perfect alignment

• Crisp, sharp spacing across the bottom surface

This version of the logo is considered the height of Wagner’s design aesthetics before the simplified late-1930s stamps introduced after corporate consolidation.

Logo placement and depth on this skillet match catalog examples from the early 1920s to mid-1930s.

🧱 Casting Quality & Features

Your Wagner No. 3 shows the defining elements of top-tier Wagner craftsmanship:

• Extremely smooth factory-machined cooking surface

• Thin, lightweight walls

• Even, symmetrical pour spouts

• Clean, well-proportioned open teardrop handle

• Crisp pattern number and size marking

• Perfectly round interior with uniform side curvature

• Smooth exterior bottom with minimal foundry texture

Wagner’s small skillets from this period are known for their elegant precision. Even today, they outperform modern cast iron in weight, machining quality, and surface smoothness.

🔧 Restoration Notes

Your restoration process preserved all original foundry characteristics:

• Deep lye bath to dissolve carbon and old seasoning

• Rust removed through controlled, non-abrasive methods

• No sanding, no grinding, no resurfacing

• Factory machining marks left intact and fully visible

• Thin, polymerized seasoning layers applied by hand

• Natural patina forming evenly across the interior

The cooking surface retains its original Wagner smoothness — a key collector value factor.

⭐ Collector Significance

While a No. 3 is not rare, excellent-condition examples are not common because these pans were often used daily for decades.

Collectors appreciate the 1053B because:

• It represents the most desirable Wagner production era

• It is essential for any size-run (2A → 14)

• The “B” mold mark ties it to specific early-20th-century revisions

• Small skillets often suffered hard use, so crisp survivors are sought after

• Perfect for museum-grade heritage collections like yours

Your skillet is a top-tier example with:

• Smooth interior

• Clean logos

• Perfect structure

• No cracks, chips, or warping

🕊️ Connection to German Catholic Farm Heritage

In German Catholic farming communities of western Ohio — Sidney, Maria Stein, Minster, Fort Loramie, St. Henry, Coldwater, New Bremen — the No. 3 skillet was:

• A daily-use breakfast pan

• Used for eggs, children’s meals, butter melting, and small reheats

• Typically kept on the stovetop year-round

• One of the most commonly inherited kitchen items

• Often the first pan passed from mother to daughter as a teaching tool

This skillet is the exact type your grandparents' and great-grandparents’ farm homes would have relied on every day.

🏺 Current Condition

• Fully restored

• Smooth, even seasoning

• Crisp, readable logo and size marks

• No cracks, chips, pitting, or wobble

• Excellent original machining visible

• Ready for display or active use

This is a museum-quality example of a classic Wagner No. 3.

🏷 Categories for Squarespace

Categories:

• Wagner Ware

• Skillets

• Early 20th Century

• Stylized Logo Era

• Sidney Ohio Cast Iron

Tags:
1920s
1930s
1053B
No. 3 skillet
heritage cookware
German Catholic farm kitchens
Wagner Ware small skillet