Filling in the Pepper Mill Collection

My book Danish Pepper used Robert Chipman’s amazing illustrations as a proxy for the mills I did not have in my collection at the time I did the pepper mill photo shoot.  There were 17 mills/sets pictured.  Since then I’ve filled in my collection a bit and gotten some more information, which I want to share with my readers at this time.  Normal folks: enjoy the photos.  Crazy collectors: prepare to geek out.

The big news for me was that I found two Jens Quistgaard mills that I did not know about at the time I wrote the book, and that one of the mills illustrated is not actually by JHQ.  The “fake” is easy – found at the far left on p. 47 – it’s been seen a few times on eBay with detailed photos and the mechanism and other details are clearly not Dansk.  The new ones and other interesting facts are detailed below.

Back row, left –> right

There is  some question in my mind whether this first mill was designed by JHQ, but I do think it was.  It is marked correctly and the details are right for an early mill, but it is so unusual.  It is the only one he ever produced with a crank, and it actually comes in two versions – the other has a wood handle/knob at the end of it rather than stainless steel.  I had seen photos of this mill before I wrote the book, but until I had it in my hands I didn’t feel comfortable attributing it to Quistgaard.

The next one features an octagonal top and a square bottom.  It is illustrated in the book, but I had only a very poor photo of it and  thought that it had a round top.  This one separates in the middle to fill.

Next we have one of my all time favorites, the cylinder bisected by a cube.  Pretty cool.

The last one in the back row also is shrouded in a bit of mystery.  Every detail of it points to it being a genuine JHQ mill.  However, in all examples I have seen, the writing in the plastic grinder seems to be sanded off.  One explanation for this is that it could be a fake made with some stolen and altered Dansk grinders.  Perhaps the Thai factory workers made it after the Dansk people went home for the night and sold them off the back of a truck.  Don’t know.  However, the quality is high and the mechanism clearly genuine, so even with the obscured signature, I’m willing to count it as a genuine JHQ mill.

Front row, left –> right

The first one in the front row is a truly rare example.  It is made of wenge and marked “Dansk Designs”.   It features a ceramic salt shaker insert in the Relief pattern, designed by Quistgaard.  I have also seen a photo of this mill in rosewood with a different pattern in the ceramic piece.  It has a Tre Spade mechanism and separates in the middle.

Next is a piece from the rare metal and rosewood series.  A hole in the metal band lines up with a hole in the wood to fill.  It is either chrome or silver plated – I don’t know enough about it to say for sure.

Last is a rare Palisander set of salt and pepper shakers.  These are not commonly seen, and went with a series of other goods designed by JHQ.   The original rare woods line came out around 1962, but I think these were produced as part of a second series that I have no specific information on.

I hope you enjoyed.  I have also grown my collection of mills by Nissen and other manufacturers.  Perhaps I will post photos of those at some point.