Forest City Foundries Co. — Niagara Furnaces Mini Spider Skillet
SSC MUSEUM COLLECTION
Catalog No. SSC-FCF-SPD-MIN-NF-001
Advertising Salesman Sample | Niagara Furnaces Division | Cleveland, Ohio
Early 20th Century • The Forest City Foundries Co.
Bottom view showing the full maker’s mark in raised block lettering: “THE FOREST CITY FOUNDRIES CO.” across the center of the base and “CLEVELAND” below. Three short spider legs are visible at the base perimeter. The handle carries “NIAGARA FURNACES” in raised lettering — identifying this as a promotional piece for the company’s stove and furnace brand. The original patina is intact and undisturbed.
This is a piece of Cleveland industrial advertising cast in iron. The miniature spider leg skillet marked “The Forest City Foundries Co. / Cleveland” with “Niagara Furnaces” on the handle is a salesman’s sample — a small, fully formed demonstration piece that a traveling salesman would have carried to show potential buyers the quality of casting that the Forest City foundry could produce. The piece itself was never intended for cooking. It was intended to sell stoves. And it tells us something important about the company that made it: Forest City Foundries was confident enough in the quality of its iron to let a miniature skillet speak for the Niagara Furnace brand.
For SSC’s “Cleveland’s Forgotten Foundries” thematic grouping, this is the second documented piece — joining the Colonial Iron Works Co. trade mark plaque as evidence of Cleveland’s vast and largely undocumented foundry ecosystem. Where the Colonial Iron Works plaque documented a conveyor systems manufacturer, this piece documents a stove and furnace company. Together, they begin to sketch the outline of an industrial city that was home to foundries serving virtually every sector of the American economy: cookware, industrial equipment, heating and home comfort, structural steel, and more. The “Forest City” name itself is a direct reference to Cleveland’s historic nickname, earned for the dense tree canopy that once covered the city — a name that this foundry chose to carry as its corporate identity.
This specimen retains its original patina — the undisturbed factory and age finish that has accumulated over more than a century. Under SSC’s preservation philosophy, this patina will not be stripped, cleaned, or re-seasoned. The original surface is part of the artifact’s documentary value, recording the piece’s history of manufacture, handling, and storage in a way that a restored surface cannot. SSC documents the piece as found.
Piece Details
Top view showing the interior cooking surface with original patina intact. Some surface deposits are visible — consistent with age, storage, and the piece’s history as a display/demonstration item rather than a cooking utensil. The shallow bowl and rimless design are characteristic of miniature advertising skillets produced by stove foundries to showcase their casting quality.
Manufacturer
The Forest City Foundries Co.
Brand/Division
Niagara Furnaces
Piece Type
Miniature spider leg skillet (advertising/salesman sample)
Legs
Three short legs (spider form)
Base Marking
“THE FOREST CITY FOUNDRIES CO.” in raised block lettering across center of base; “CLEVELAND” below
Handle Marking
“NIAGARA FURNACES” in raised lettering along handle
Bottom Configuration
Rounded bottom with three short legs
Pour Spouts
None
Handle Style
Short flat handle without hanging hole
Surface Finish
Original patina — undisturbed factory/age finish; not stripped or re-seasoned (preservation documented)
Date of Manufacture
Early 20th century (company documented from at least 1903 through 1948)
Place of Manufacture
Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio (9401 Maywood Avenue)
Condition
Very Good with original patina — structurally sound; no cracks or chips; all raised lettering fully legible; original dark surface finish intact with age-appropriate wear; some surface deposits on interior consistent with age and storage
Acquisition Date
March 1, 2026
Acquisition Source
eBay — Seller: wtanner4
eBay Item Number
168128063324
Order Number
10-14303-23899
SSC Catalog Number
SSC-FCF-SPD-MIN-NF-001
Collection Grouping
Cleveland’s Forgotten Foundries
The Company: Forest City Foundries Co.
The Forest City Foundries Company operated in Cleveland, Ohio, at 9401 Maywood Avenue in the city’s west side industrial corridor. The company appears in trade publications from at least 1903 (The Metal Worker) through 1948 (documented ephemera), with additional references in The Ohio Architect, Engineer & Builder (1918) and American Artisan & Hardware Record. A 1938 product catalog survives listing Niagara brand gas, coal, and oil heating products. The company operated under several related names during its history: Forest City Foundry, Forest City Foundry & Manufacturing Company, and The Forest City Foundries Company, with the Niagara Furnace line identified as a division of the parent operation.
The company’s primary product line was stoves and furnaces — heating equipment for residential and commercial applications. The “Niagara” brand name, while its origin is not documented in available records, evokes power and energy — an appropriate association for a heating equipment manufacturer. The production of miniature cast iron advertising pieces — spider skillets, cauldrons, pots with lids — was a common practice among stove foundries in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These miniatures served dual purposes: as salesman’s samples that demonstrated the quality of the foundry’s castings to potential buyers, and as promotional giveaways that kept the company’s name visible in customers’ homes and offices.
The surviving miniature pieces — including this spider skillet, as well as small cauldrons and pots documented on the secondary market — are among the most tangible evidence of the Forest City Foundries Company’s existence and the quality of its work. Like many Cleveland foundries of the era, the company left no surviving corporate archives, no detailed histories, and no museum collections. The iron it produced is the documentary record.
The Spider Form: An Advertising Tradition
The three-legged miniature skillet — the “spider” form — was a standard advertising vehicle for American stove foundries from the late 19th century through the mid-20th century. The spider form connected the manufacturer’s brand to the hearth-cooking tradition that stoves were designed to replace. A miniature spider skillet on a customer’s desk or mantle was a reminder that the company that made their furnace was also capable of producing fine cast iron — a subtle message about foundry quality and craft heritage.
These pieces were typically produced in small sizes — a few inches across — with the company name and brand prominently cast into the base or handle. They were not functional cookware. They were advertisements, cast in the same iron and produced by the same foundry that made the company’s commercial products. The quality of the casting on an advertising miniature was itself a sales argument: if the foundry could produce lettering this clean and detail this sharp on a piece this small, imagine what it could do on a full-size furnace.
Original Patina: A Preservation Decision
This specimen retains its original surface patina — the accumulated factory finish, handling wear, and age darkening that constitute the piece’s physical history. SSC has made a deliberate decision not to strip, clean, or re-season this piece. The original patina is part of the artifact’s documentary value. It records how the piece was finished when it left the Forest City foundry, how it was handled during its working life as a salesman’s sample, and how it was stored during the decades after the company ceased operations.
Under SSC’s Archival Black™ preservation protocol, non-destructive methods (lye degreasing and electrolysis) are the only cleaning approaches permitted. In the case of this piece, even those methods are not applied because the original patina is stable, the markings are fully legible through the existing surface, and the documentary value of the undisturbed finish exceeds the aesthetic benefit of restoration. The piece is documented as found.
Collector’s Context & Cleveland’s Forgotten Foundries
The Forest City Foundries mini spider skillet is the second piece in SSC’s “Cleveland’s Forgotten Foundries” thematic grouping. The first — the Colonial Iron Works Co. trade mark plaque — documented a conveyor systems manufacturer. This piece documents a stove and furnace manufacturer. Together, they represent two distinct sectors of Cleveland’s industrial iron economy, both produced by companies that have effectively vanished from the historical record except for the iron they left behind.
At $16.99 plus shipping and tax ($27.05 total), this is one of the least expensive acquisitions in the SSC collection — and one of the most significant per dollar spent. The piece carries a fully legible Cleveland maker’s mark, identifies a specific brand (Niagara Furnaces), and documents a company whose existence is otherwise attested primarily through trade publication references and surviving ephemera. For Cleveland industrial heritage, this miniature spider skillet is a primary source artifact.
Provenance & Acquisition
This mini spider skillet was acquired on March 1, 2026, via eBay from seller wtanner4, under eBay item number 168128063324 (order 10-14303-23899). The listing described the piece as “Vtg Cast Iron Mini Spider Leg Skillet Cleveland Forest City Foundries Niagara.” The piece was purchased at $16.99 plus $7.95 USPS Ground Advantage shipping and $2.11 in sales tax, for a total acquisition cost of $27.05.
Physical examination on receipt confirmed the condition as described: structurally sound, all markings legible, original patina intact, three legs sound, no cracks or damage. The piece has been logged into the SSC collection under catalog number SSC-FCF-SPD-MIN-NF-001, assigned to the “Cleveland’s Forgotten Foundries” thematic grouping as the second documented Cleveland foundry specimen.
Why This Piece Matters
The Forest City Foundries Co. miniature spider skillet matters because it is a piece of Cleveland that almost nobody remembers. Not the Cleveland of Rockefeller and Standard Oil. Not the Cleveland of U.S. Steel and the Cuyahoga Works. The Cleveland of small and mid-sized foundries that made the stoves and furnaces that heated American homes, that employed Cleveland workers, that occupied Cleveland factory buildings, and that named themselves after their city’s own nickname. The Forest City Foundries Company was proud to be from Cleveland — proud enough to cast the name “Cleveland” into every miniature skillet it sent out with its salesmen. That pride deserves to be documented and preserved, even if the company itself is gone.
The iron endures. The markings tell the truth. The story deserves to be told.
Sources & Further Reading
MyCompanies Wiki — Forest City Foundry & Manufacturing Company entry: Documents alternate company names including Forest City Foundries Company and Niagara Furnace Division; trade publication citations from The Metal Worker (1903), Ohio Architect Engineer & Builder (1918), and American Artisan & Hardware Record.
USA.com — Environmental profile: Forest City Foundries located at 9401 Maywood Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44102.
WorthPoint.com — Historical auction records for Forest City Foundries Co. miniature cast iron advertising pieces including spider skillets, cauldrons, and pots.
eBay — 1938 Forest City Foundries Co. Cleveland OH Catalog: Niagara Gas Coal Oil product listing confirming active production into the late 1930s.
Encyclopedia of Cleveland History (Case Western Reserve University) — Cleveland’s iron and steel industry context and the city’s “Forest City” nickname history.
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 60 pieces with detailed provenance, historical research, and photography for each item.
