An invaluable information source about cast iron holloware of the pre-Griswold and Wagner era for collectors, museum curators, reenactors, and hearth cooking aficionados. It is the first book to document cast iron pots, skillets, spiders, pans, kettles, teakettles, Dutch ovens, and mortars, plus several items in brass, from the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries, spanning the years 1645 to 1900. Over 350 photos illustrate identifiable changes in the manufacturing technologies and the vessel forms. Line drawings and detail photos enable the reader to correctly date the objects they find. The engaging text is a product of forty years of collecting and wide-ranging research. Most of the vessels are illustrated in print for the first time. Many of these objects have been seen occasionally in antiques shops or at auctions, but they have never before been identified in the literature. This will be a standard reference book for many years to come.