Is a smooth-bottom Wagner newer than a heat-ring one?

Inside the stylized logo, yes as a rule of thumb: heat-ring skillets with a size number are the earlier stylized pans, and smooth bottoms with a catalog number come later, around the mid-1930s onward. Early pre-stylized Wagner can also have rings. The logo still has to be read. Smooth does not mean “modern Lodge.”

Why does my Wagner say 1891?

That number is the company’s founding year used as a mark, especially on the 1891 Original line from the centennial period. It is not the year your skillet was cast. Comp that mark with the same mark, and do not add a hundred years in the title.

Can a pan be both Wagner and Griswold?

Some later pans carry both names on purpose, after the brands were under one owner and Griswold’s Erie works had closed. Photograph both. A ghost of an Erie stamp under a Wagner mark is a different, earlier pattern story. Do not describe a ghost as a dual logo, and do not describe a dual logo as a ghost.

How much is a Wagner cast iron skillet worth?

Wagner is Sidney, Ohio, not an Erie Griswold with a different font. The stylized Ware mark, the catalog number, and the heat ring decide the pan.

Kitchenware Thrifting Journal

Wagner skillets were cast in Sidney, Ohio, by Wagner Manufacturing, a rival of Griswold’s Erie foundry for most of both companies’ lives. The mark people mean is the stylized Wagner Ware logo: a decorative W standing in for both words, with SIDNEY -O- underneath, used from the early 1920s into the late 1950s. Earlier pans say WAGNER in plain or arched letters and name Sidney without that logo. Later pans drop the city, add Made in USA, or carry the 1891 Original trademark from the centennial years. Those are different molds and different sold listings.

The number cast into the iron is a size or a catalog number, not a date and not automatically the diameter in inches. A four-digit catalog number is a Wagner habit on later stylized skillets. The founding year 1891, reused as a trademark, does not mean the skillet in your hand was poured in 1891. Condition is ordinary iron: an even season is use, pitting is missing metal, and a spin on a flat stove is a warp. This page is the Sidney marks. The comparison with Erie lettering lives in the journal, and it should not be skipped by putting both names in one title.

What to look for

The stylized mark: Wagner Ware as one large W, SIDNEY -O- with hyphens around the O, usually toward the top of the bottom. Plain arched WAGNER is an earlier mark. A Griswold block or slant is the other foundry. Photograph the whole bottom so the city is in the frame.
Catalog and size numbers: A size number such as 8, and on many later skillets a four-digit catalog number, can both be present. Neither is the inch measurement. If the pan is marked in inches instead, say inches. Do not translate a number 8 into a diameter you did not measure.
Heat ring or smooth: Earlier stylized Wagner skillets often have a heat ring and a size number. Smooth bottoms with a catalog number are the later stylized form, from about the mid-1930s. The ring is not what makes it Wagner. The name does that. The ring still belongs in the listing.
1891 and dual marks: 1891 Original is a late trademark line, made around the company’s centennial, not a skillet from 1891. Two intentional logos, Wagner with Griswold or Wagner with National, are a known later or Sidney-era form. A faint Erie ghost under a Wagner mark is an early pattern-making leftover, not a second brand you should add to the title.

What moves the price

Which Wagner: Early Sidney lettering, stylized with a heat ring, stylized smooth with a catalog number, late Made in USA, and 1891 Original do not share a column in sold listings. A title that says vintage Wagner and nothing else is how those columns get averaged by mistake.
Not a Griswold: Erie slant, large block, and small logo are Griswold comps. Sidney iron that happens to be black is not those comps. After 1957 some pans marked Griswold were cast in Sidney. That confusion is the journal article. It is not a reason to list a clear Wagner as Griswold because the buyer pool looks larger.
Surface and seat: Light rust can be seasoning work. Pitting, a crack at the handle, and a warp are damage on Wagner the same way they are on any iron. Disclose them. A wiped pan and a pitted pan are different sales even when the logo matches.
Form: A skillet, a dutch oven, a waffle iron, and a toy pan with the same logo are different objects. Name the form. A number 8 skillet is the everyday search. A less common form needs its own sold listings, not a skillet price with a hopeful adjective.

Where to sell

eBay: Buyers search Wagner, the logo words they know, and the size or catalog number. Photos of the entire bottom, the number, and the cooking surface are the listing. Weigh the pan before you promise shipping. Iron is a label that surprises people who guessed.
Local: The better market for a common smooth skillet with ordinary rust, and for any pan you have not confirmed sits flat. A cook can season it. You will not pay dimensional weight to discover the buyer wanted an Erie small logo instead.
Leave the logo alone: Do not grind, heavily sand, or “restore” the mark to pretty the bottom. A season a cook can use is a feature. A half-stripped pan with a soft logo is a worse listing than the dirty one you found. Sell it as found unless you actually know how to stop.

What a photo can settle

The full bottom in a low side light so SIDNEY -O- or its absence is readable, the size and any catalog number, the cooking surface, and a shot on a flat counter if you can show a warp. Worth can read a clear Wagner mark and tell it from Griswold. It cannot feel pitting under a dark season, and it cannot date an 1891 trademark as a manufacture year. The letters do that only when you do not translate them.

Questions

Is a smooth-bottom Wagner newer than a heat-ring one?: Inside the stylized logo, yes as a rule of thumb: heat-ring skillets with a size number are the earlier stylized pans, and smooth bottoms with a catalog number come later, around the mid-1930s onward. Early pre-stylized Wagner can also have rings. The logo still has to be read. Smooth does not mean “modern Lodge.”
Why does my Wagner say 1891?: That number is the company’s founding year used as a mark, especially on the 1891 Original line from the centennial period. It is not the year your skillet was cast. Comp that mark with the same mark, and do not add a hundred years in the title.
Can a pan be both Wagner and Griswold?: Some later pans carry both names on purpose, after the brands were under one owner and Griswold’s Erie works had closed. Photograph both. A ghost of an Erie stamp under a Wagner mark is a different, earlier pattern story. Do not describe a ghost as a dual logo, and do not describe a dual logo as a ghost.