Our house keeper hated this thing. She was part black, Irish & Amer. Indian. Cast iron & weighs in at about 4 lbs/2 k's. Remember in the family going back to the 50's (no Scot & PW, not the 1850's). Was pleasantly surprised to find it at my sister's while visiting in July. Does anybody have any info on the history/manufacture of these? I see no marks. Here again I see no cat. with CW to include it in & think they need to spend some time coming up with practical cats..