The word "trivet" is a late-Middle-English corruption of the Latin "tri-ped" or "three-legged". Two types of trivets are commonly collected today: the tea trivet, which holds a teapot or serving dish and prevents the hot utensil from damaging a table, and the sad-iron trivet, usually shaped like a flatiron (also called a sad iron), and which was used before irons were electric. The user heated the iron in the fire, or on top of a woodstove, and rested it on the trivet while turning the clothing or linens, to prevent it from scorching the ironing surface.
Most ironing trivets were made of cast iron, but some tea trivets were and still are made of ceramic tiles, sometimes framed in wood or cast iron. Some of the most popular 20th century iron trivets were painted, and modern trivets are often colorful enamel upon cast iron.
Cast iron does not conduct heat as rapidly as other metals, so as it is not itself damaged by the hot utensil or iron, it also does not transfer the heat to the surface beneath.
Well known manufacturers of collectible vintage trivets include Wilton and Griswold.
Griswold Cast Iron
The Griswold Manufacturing Company was founded in 1865 in Erie, Pennsylvania. Its pieces were first marked "Erie". Among the items the company produced were skillets, muffin pans, roasters, bread molds, waffle irons, kettles, and dutch ovens. The heavy cast iron was made to last more than a lifetime, and if cleaned carefully and well-seasoned could still be used today by the collector.
Although many different marks were used by Griswold over the years, the most desirable and authentic older pieces carry Erie, PA or Erie PA USA beneath the mark.
The company was sold in 1957, but the name continued to be used for years afterward including by other manufacturers. Technically, this means that newer pieces are not considered fakes or reproductions, but nonetheless they are less desirable among collectors.(Griswold Cast Iron Collectibles)
Wilton Products/Wilton Brass Company (later Wilton Armetale)
The merger of Susquehanna Castings, a foundry in Wrightsville, PA, with the Wilton Brass Company (located across the street at the time) resulted in the Wilton Products Company. Susquehanna (founded in 1893) had made various heavy metal consumer products and Wilton (c. 1935) decorated them. Popular items in the 1940s and 1950s included trivets, bottle openers, candle holders and other small decorative novelties. Wilton Products, however, closed in 1989.
Its successor, the Wilton Armetale Company, takes its name from a metal it developed in 1963 from an aluminum-based alloy that it called "armetale". By the latter part of that decade brass products had taken a back seat to the new metal, but the company was still being familiarly called Wilton Brass well into the 1980s.
Contemporary Wilton trivets continue to be manufactured from the alloy, and are moderately priced for the modern household. They are generally decorative, round or shaped like a particular motif such as a star or animal. Collectible iron Wilton trivets are found on eBay and other auction sites, and may be considered "vintage" if they are older than fifty years; similar patterns and designs were produced for many years. Some patterns appear to have been identified with an impressed number on the back of the trivet.
Other Manufacturers of Cast Iron Trivets
Such iron foundries and manufacturers of iron tools and farm implements were found wherever iron ore and a good power supply such as a river could be harnessed. Enterprise Manufacturing Company in Philadelphia made sad-iron trivets in the 1890s and early 1900s.
Of course, trivets were being made in other countries as well. Japanese iron teapots often had decorative matching trivets, and hand-made scrap metal trivets are now museum pieces in Australia. Collectible antique sad-iron trivets are commonly found without markings, which doesn't diminish their appeal but lowers their prices.
Sources:
- PowerHouse Museum, Sydney, Australia
- ArticleInsider.com, article on teapot trivets
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