Cast Iron Pot

Was hoping someone might know what this pot what used for and if it had a specific name. It has an odd bottom and flaps for lifting up. I think it might have sat in something else. It appears to be from the late 1800's I think, with the usage wear and gate mark on the bottom.

Thanks for looking.

 

Well you didn't state the size, kind of looks like an old potty.

 

Hi,
I think it was for cooking a soup or stew on an old coal/wood stove. It would sit near the fire on top of the stove. Ask me about my great aunt's stove that always had a pot boiling with soup on it. No sense running the stove for heat without something cooking on it.
greg

 

It measures about 10 1/2 inches tall and 11 1/2 inches in diameter at the top. There has to be a meaning to the way the bottom is shaped. It looks like it could have a lid, with a shallow lip at the top. I wonder about how hot the pot could get and still be able to be picked up with the flaps instead of a bail.

 

I agree with soup pot, but also bean pot.

 

Crucible for melting softer metals like lead? You wouldn't want to ladle any metal below the bottom lip as that would be where the heavier junk metals would fall if they didn't melt? Just thrown out ideas -

 

I had the same thought - smelting pot. Now this is just a thought. It would surely be a smelting pot if it had a pouring mouth/spout. It doesn't look like it had a cover sooo was probably not a bean pot. I guess a cauldron/pot are probably the best terms you can call it.

From about 1875 to 1900 the gate mark casting process was phased out. It is very rare to ID makers of cast iron with these gate marks because there were many "cast iron foundries in the 1800s, and many did not put maker’s marks on their wares."

--- Susan

 

Spout yes if using the crucible itself as a pouring pot into a sand mold. But if just using to melt the material then use pouring ladles to pour into smaller permanent (metal) molds.

 

Seems a bit thin at its size to be a smelting or industrial type piece. I would think the feet/pegs on the bottom would make the heating on a stove uneven. I was thinking maybe it sat on a specific stand for over a camp fire or fireplace, but then lifting it out with only those flaps would be a pain i'd imagine.

It does have a thin lip on the top to facilitate a lid possibly.

I've been looking on ebay/google/other websites for awhile and have yet to find a similar shape.

Anyway, thanks for the replies. I guess it stays as just a plain old cooking pot with an odd shape.

 

Found the term Eccentric Kettle, which lead me to the term Pit Bottom. I've not seen a centered ring on a pot though, only tea kettles. And none with the flaps instead of a bail.

Learned something from all of this at least.

 

Having dealt with antique iron for over 30 years, I must say the ears rather than a bale are a puzzle. However, the construction indicates an interesting history: the recessed bottom was indeed designed to be set into a stove top, but the presence of the three feet is curious. A footed kettle would have been used in a fireplace. These feet appear to have been cut off at some point in time. I would place the date at ca. 1840 or possibly a bit earlier. It's a little small, but it could be a small soup kettle that was kept continually simmering and into which left overs were continually added, so the resulting soup or "hotchpot" was continually changing and there was little waste of food.

 

Hi Vernon,
Just like my great aunt's perpetual soup on her stove. The only thing that she wasted was the oink of the pig. When I told people about her soup they looked at me like I made it up.
greg

 

In my early life, I restored antique houses, and one was a great early cape with a kitchen ell containing a fireplace with a built in brick and iron stove on the backside of the fireplace. We kept a pot onstantly simmering an continually added leftovers. It created the most delicious soup and eventually stew that changed character every day.