Graniteware describes enameled metal coffee pots, colanders, salt-and-pepper shakers, cake molds, muffin pans, and skillets produced throughout the Midwestern and Eastern United States from the 1870s until the end of World War II. Patented in 1848 by New York inventor Charles Stumer, graniteware was also known as agateware, enameled ware, and speckleware. Among the many manufacturers of graniteware was the St. Louis Stamping Company, which marketed a line of Granite Iron Ware products for the kitchen.

St. Louis Stamping was one of the earliest producers of graniteware, as was Lalance and Grosjean, which won the Grand Gold Medal at the Paris Exposition of 1878 for its blue and white pieces. Soon, Lalance and Grosjean was producing graniteware for Sears, Roebuck and Company, which the famous catalog company marketed as Peerless Gray Ware. Other early graniteware producers included Bellaire Stamping Company and Vollrath.

Close cousins of graniteware are those pieces whose grays and other colors were mottled or marbled. Colors appeared to blend into each other, or swirl and curlicue separately to ...create random, eye-catching patterns and effects. Today, mottled enamelware is a favorite of kitchen collectors, but it is usually treated as a separate category from graniteware.