The Little Bail-Handle Pot Marked Only "Wagner"
Bean Pots & Kettles, Attributed Makers, Wagner Specialty & Variant Collection, SSC Museum Collection Steve Thaman Bean Pots & Kettles, Attributed Makers, Wagner Specialty & Variant Collection, SSC Museum Collection Steve Thaman

The Little Bail-Handle Pot Marked Only "Wagner"

A small cast iron bail-handle pot from Steve's Seasoned Classics carries a single clue on its underside: the word "Wagner" in flowing cursive script, with a script "2" — and no "Ware," no "Sidney, O.," and no stylized single-"W" logo. That absence is the whole story. Under the trademark-dating framework maintained by The Cast Iron Collector, Wagner's mark "consisted solely of the word 'WAGNER'" for roughly its first thirty years, and only became "Wagner Ware" about 1914, with the iconic logo arriving around 1922 — so a "WAGNER"-only script mark points to the Sidney, Ohio foundry's earlier lettering period. This deep dive separates what the mark can establish (Wagner Manufacturing Company, founded 1891 in Sidney, Ohio) from what it can't (a precise year for a bail-handle pot of this exact form), and flags the open questions honestly for the next collector who spots the same script on the bottom of their own piece.

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Wagner Cast Iron Bean PotStove Ring Kettle — Size 8
Wagner Specialty & Variants, Ohio Foundry Corridor, Wagner Ware, Pre-1905 Collection, SSC Museum Collection Steve Thaman Wagner Specialty & Variants, Ohio Foundry Corridor, Wagner Ware, Pre-1905 Collection, SSC Museum Collection Steve Thaman

Wagner Cast Iron Bean PotStove Ring Kettle — Size 8

A Wagner No. 8 cast iron bean pot from the early arc mark period — before WAGNER WARE, before Sidney-O, before catalog numbers. The arc WAGNER mark with decorative flourishes, three cast leg feet, original wire bail handle, and the stove ring flange that locked it into a wood or coal stove eye for the long slow cook that fed American families in the foundry's earliest years. The oldest Wagner mark configuration in the SSC collection.

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