Archive | History

In the earliest days of Revere Ware, the Bakelite handles sandwiched around a metal spline, which showed through all around.  The handles had a hollow screw / nut where the handle hook goes, and two screws near the front of the pot, like this:

Around 1947, they changed to the newer variety of handle, the type we sell replacement for.

On the newer style vintage handle, the spline on the largest version of the sauce pans and skillets is 3/4″ wide from top to bottom.

Customer Laurence seems to have come across a skillet that has a different handle.

Note the sharp outer edge and the pour spout.  I’ve seen these before but this skillet seems to have a much sharper bottom curve as well.

His handle is a cross between the newer vintage style (where the spline fits in a channel) and the older style, with the hollow screw and nut where the handing hook attaches.

The spline height on this one is 1 inch in width, which I’ve never seen before.  You can see from comparing the skillet spline with the example shown above, that it is taller.

It is definitely a unique pan.  My working theory is that it is something that they were perhaps experimenting with as they were developing the new handle styles.

I came across an auction on eBay that had a Revere Ware vintage pressure cooker with a manual I had never seen before.  Then for some reason, the seller listed the manual separately, so of course, I had to buy it.  Here it is:

It seems to be missing the outer cover. This manual is very simple as it appears to be mostly typewriter produced and contains few pictures.  Upon first seeing it, I assumed that perhaps it was the very first version of the pressure cooker manual from when they were first produced.  Here is what we know about the pressure cookers from the photo guide.

Reading through this new manual, I came across this, from page 3.

Hmm.  So this isn’t the first version of the manual, but something that spans both models.  There is unfortunately no date on the manual (it is usually on the back cover, which is missing) so that isn’t any help.

My best guess here is that, when they first came out with the redesigned dial gauge model, and they had some of the old model and some of the new model, they quickly needed a manual that could be shipped with both types, until the older inventory was gone.  It’s my working theory right now anyways.

Revere Ware is iconic, no question about that.  It was a mainstay for a good part of a generation or two and there continues to be a strong following today, even though it is no longer in production.  But all things related to Revere Ware over the years do show some relationship to the era in which they came from.

And over time, standards change.  We know there has been a lot of vocality on social issues in the last few years, especially with the #metoo and #blacklivesmatter movements.

Sometimes, when we look back at a snapshot in time, to see how things were, it helps us understand just how much things have changed.

Take for example a part of an ad from 1948.

Clearly, it was assumed then that the women’s place was in the kitchen.  We have none of that at my house in this day and age. 🙂

And consider this ad, from 1970.

I get the play on words; it’s even a bit funny, in a way.  But I don’t think women of today would appreciate being referred to as a “dish”.  I have to wonder if they did in 1970.  Perhaps they didn’t, but didn’t feel empowered enough to speak up about it.  I think in both cases Revere Ware was likely just going with the prevailing attitudes of the day.  With three daughters, I appreciate that attitudes towards women have improved significantly since then.

And sometimes things get worse.  Sitting around with some friends yesterday (thank goodness we can start doing that again), we were lamenting the throw away nature of much of what is produced these days.  Not so back in the golden olden days of Revere Ware, as evidenced by the fact that so many people are still using their 50,60, 70, 80 year old Revere Ware.

A very wise person once said “Take what you like an leave the rest.”  I’ll appreciate the good things about Revere Ware and know that some of their advertising is a bit dated by today’s standards.

We often get asked for help identifying cookware.  Today’s question comes from Joe, who writes:

Good Evening. I’ve searched and could not get an identification on this piece of cookware. I’ve looked at your website and the internet and have not been able to find this line of Revere Ware. The majority of pieces I’ve seen have plastic handles. Any insight to this line with rounded metal handles? Thank you so much for your time.

The best resource for identifying cookware is the photo guide.   Joe has what appears to be the Restaurant Ware style from the 1980’s.  There is a blurb in our Photo Guide on this:

I’m always looking for things like brochures to help fill out the Revere Ware information we have an we present here.  An early brochure | price list from 1943 appeared recently and I snapped it up.  You can see all the early styles they have in those first few years of Revere Ware, and how they differ from the style the dominated much of the vintage era, through 1968.

You can find the entire catalog here.  There are some really interesting pieces in there.  The thin lipped skilled for example, with pouring spout.

I happen to have one of these.  The sauce pot with strainer basket is something I hadn’t seen before either; they called it a French fryer.

The double boiler had Bakelite handles, and came in two sizes, 1 1/2 quart and 2 quart, that went with the 2 and 3 quart sauce pans.

There is also the deep well cooker we’ve talked about before.

Interestingly what I’ve always heard referred to as the bale handled pot, they call a preserving kettle.

In 1961 they called it a bale handle kettle.

The percolator looks distinctly different from those of later years, with what appears to be a glass knob that looks much like the Bakelite ones.

Here is one from 1953.

I’ll bet the knob proved too fragile like that so they redesigned it.  Lastly, I just love this kettle design.

Sometimes people contact us with a question but mistype their email address, so they never get the answer. This happened recently with Reader Tina’s question about her mother’s Revere Ware set.  Hopefully she finds the answer here.  She asks:

I am still using my mom’s copper bottom pans. They have Pictures of seahorses on the handles. I am interested in knowing how popular these were and what is the oldest known pans still in use today. Mine have been well used and loved. Most of the pictures are worn off. The knob came off the top of one of them a few years ago but other than that they still do what they were made for! I don’t know how long my mom had them but i would say this is a testimony to the quality!