Copper & Iron Fish Pan: Trash or Treasure?

[talesofthesevenseas]

That's a great story, thanks for posting it!!! That would be consistant with the other one that is posted above with the same handle design that also dated to the 1860's. All the construction methods on the pan remind me a lot of the bedwarmer, which we figured dated to about 1850-ish. Mr Fish is definitely getting a place of honor on the kitchen wall.

Wayward, I'll take some additional detail pics tonight. Every inch of this looks irregular and handmade. There's not a single part of it that has any of the hallmarks of machining.

By the way I posted the wrong price for it, I actually paid less, only $1.20 for this pan. Un-freakin' believeable. I think whomever is pricing inventory at this thrift store hasn't got a clue about antiques. I'm seeing things like run-of-the-mill antique and even reproduction antique rocking chairs over-priced at $300 and on the other end of the spectrum items like this pan at $1.20 and the chinahead doll at $5.50. I think I'm going to have to try to hit this store on a daily basis, this can't possibly go on much longer before someone gets a clue, and who knows what else might appear on the shelves with a three dollar price tag in the meantime.

Here's some info on Civil War era pots and pans:
http://www.dearmyrtle.com/05/0229.htm

And if any of you are interested in getting one of these copper pans with the same kind of handle support, there is a nice one up for auction at Goodwill, currently at $13.00
http://www.shopgoodwill.com/auctions/Antique-CopperIron-Pan-7030555.html

[talesofthesevenseas]

Well this is interesting, I received a reply from an Ebay seller that I decided would be a good person to ask about the fish pan because they are openning a place called "The Copper Art Museum" in AZ.
http://www.azcentennial.gov/projects/applications/AHAC07-10.pdf

Unfortunately, it looks like my fish pan may not be antique at all. Here is the reply:

Hello, Sorry to be so late in replying. Your pan is similar to a French (lechefrite) drip collecting pan for under a roast on a spit. The fish was probably put in at a later date. I think that it is not from the 1800's due to the round stock on the supporting handles but is still very nice and an interesting piece. This handle type was used on a lot of copper coming from Turkey in the late 1900's Hope that this helps you
Best regards, Pat

I went hunting for similar Turkish pans and found these, which do look similar:
http://www.yurdan.com/yrdn/Search.aspx?q_key=turkish%20copper%20pan&CatalogID=YRDN_Copper
They do have roundstock on the handle support, but all the examples of this are listed as having iron handles.

But what bothers me about this reply is that I'm a little doubtful that the fish could have been added later without it looking like an addition. It's tinned like the rest of the pan and I think that would have come off or the tinned finish would have been damaged if it had been impressed by a second party. The fish doesn't look like something that would have been done in Turkey. (I don't think?) Retinning copper pans is a labor-intensive process which is described here:
http://www.marthastewart.com/article/retinning-copper-pans
and there are very few people who do it. It just doesn't quite add up that someone would invest that much in this pan if it was a 1990's Turkish knock-off.

I dunno. Hmm... I might try emailing the retinning guy to see if what he thinks. I'm back to not knowing what the heck I've got!

Jondar, is your pan's handle support made of roundstock? Is the handle steel or iron?

[talesofthesevenseas]

Well Hells bells. I sat down with a loupe and looked over the pan, searching for signs of machining or something that would tell me if this is or isn't antique. Nuthin'! I suspect the person I contacted is correct and its a repro, and if they were using old school methods in Turkey, there's just no way of knowing with absolute certainty. Darn! But what the heck, I still like it on the wall, until I find something truly old to hang there.

[Mindings]

We have a saying in the UK that one person's junk is another person's treasure. If this was on sale in the UK it would fetch a good price as a wall ornament.

Phil