Vintage cast iron can be found in a variety of items beyond cookware, including antiques, toys, banks, and practical household items such as doorstops and matches. One-of-a-kind items like firefighter helmets and lighthouse lamps also exist.
When it comes to cast iron, most people think of cookware, but vintage cast iron can be found in just about anything old, from a bootjack to a bookend. Cast iron is an alloy usually composed of iron, carbon and a mixture of other elements. This compound is melted and poured into a casting, and the results can be soft and tough or brittle and hard, depending on the type of mold and the exact mix. Since cast iron has been around for a long, long time, there are many antiques around today that were made with it.
While modern cast iron is often associated with pots and pans, this metal has been in use for centuries, so your search for antiques won’t usually be limited to the kitchen area. Of course, there are plenty of kitchen items made from cast iron as well as turn-of-the-century fire tools and old-fashioned irons that can come in handy as paperweights. Other kitchen-related items made from vintage cast iron are stoves, teapots, and cauldrons.
Vintage cast iron is also found in antique toys, which often have intricate details, including toy cannons, ice wagons and fire trucks. There are also dollhouse items made from cast iron, such as vintage dollhouse chests with opening drawers and miniature stoves. For car enthusiasts, there are classic cars, buses and tractors in cast iron, painted in red, blue or green. Cast iron was also a popular choice for saving money in the past, with different styles of banks, from an elephant-shaped coin bank to an ice cream truck bank.
Of course, vintage cast iron can also be found in more practical items used around the home, including fire tools, doorstops, and matches. In the den or study, period cast iron was used for bookends, inkwells and nameplates. Cast iron also found its way into practical items such as boot scrapers and, what may have been considered a luxury, cast iron mirror frames.
On the rare side, vintage cast iron is often found in one-of-a-kind items, like a firefighter’s helmet painted bright red or a lighthouse lamp. For those who smoke, there are also cigar cutters or cast iron ashtrays. Because cast iron tends to be heavy, it was often a popular choice for a doorstop, and there are some unusual ones out there, from a ship’s anchor to a pig-shaped stopper.
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