Wagner Ware Sidney -O- No. 8 Cast Iron Skillet

The No. 8 is Wagner Ware's flagship size — the most produced skillet in the Sidney line, the size featured in Wagner's advertising, the piece that appears in every antique market in America. What makes this particular example worth documenting is its pattern letter. Catalog number 1058 T carries pattern letter T — the twentieth letter of the alphabet — meaning at least nineteen sand mold patterns for the No. 8 had been produced, used until worn, and replaced before this one was cut. No other size in the Wagner Ware Sidney -O- line accumulated pattern letters at this rate. The T is not a date code. It is a production volume document, recording in a single letter the extraordinary scale at which Wagner manufactured its most popular size. This smooth-bottom example, c. 1935–1959, is the No. 8 in the SSC complete skillet set.