The Peppermills of Jens Quistgaard

The most unique feature of the Eyelet is the round void atop the design – one of only two (perhaps three) JHQ mills with a hole. This design appears to be one of the most complex series of shapes to produce. A straight-sided, conical shape with chamfers makes up the base of this mill, while its top is mostly curvilinear. The top loop needs to be manufactured partially as a turned shape, but then also carved to create the eponymous flat eyelet shape and hole.

The base of the mill contains compartments for salt and pepper, loaded via two sets of removable wooden pegs. There are sixteen salt holes at the top of the base, which is both more than the usual six to eight holes in most designs and an odd point from which to disperse salt. Typical salt shakers have salt holes at the very top of the object, but in this case, the entire loop shape will be between the food and the salt holes when you invert this “table seasoner.”

The rotation point is well masked at the joint between the top loop shape and the base of this mill. The cut-line in the middle of the base is cosmetic but helps signify that both salt and pepper live in the base of this design.

We’ve seen this mill with the all-metal Peugeot grinder, the transitional Peugeot grinder, and the plastic grinder, all made in Denmark. The only design modification we’ve noticed occurs in the plastic grinder models: 12 larger diameter salt holes replace the 16 holes of earlier exemplars. The overall shape appears to remain consistent.

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One of the most zoomorphic JHQ designs, the Birdbeak’s profile unmistakably evokes an avian reference. While we recognize that the top of this mill’s three-dimensional shape is just as reminiscent of a nose of a rocket or any number of other industrial or space-age objects, for us the Birdbeak moniker seems to have stuck as a clear reference for this design. 

This mill has a few unique features within Quistgaard’s peppermill designs, starting with a fully integrated salt cap. Most of JHQ salt compartments are closed by some sort of peg. Usually, these pegs are distinct from the rest of the mill, marked by a sharp break with the rest of the shapes, even if the shapes are complimentary. The salt cap in the Birdbeak is a smooth continuation of the beak shape, with a clearly visible cutline but a continuous profile. The base of the mill is a cube, which also puts this mill into a small subset of non-turned JHQ shapes.

The Birdbeak’s grinder rotation point is well masked by the sharp angle between the beak shape and the neck of the base. There are 10 salt holes, with the salt loaded by removing the top cap. Pepper is loaded via the underside of the mill.

We’ve only seen this mill in the Transitional Peugeot grinder. As with most of the designs of this period of production, the salt cap has cork making the connection between the cap and the body of the mill.

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The unusually titled Druuge is one of Jens Harald Quistgaard’s most dramatic designs. Two conical elements flare out to flat rings in the middle of this mill, creating the illusion of disconnected halves suspended in equilibrium. From most angles, the physical connection between the two corresponding shapes is completely hidden from view. The mill portends floating novelty items that play with magnetism, or the most graceful electrical capacitors ever created.

The name comes from Todd Pederzani’s defunct peppermill catalog. His reference for this mill’s shape comes from similarly shaped alien ships in a videogame called Star Control. Druuge is such an amazing word, we dared not rename it.

The overall shape of this mill is a gently tapered cone. The middle of the mill curves out to two equal disks, then sharply cuts back to the center of the mill. Despite the dramatic visual effect, the diameter of the central connection is substantial, so the mills should not be fragile at the connection point.

Salt is loaded by unscrewing a plastic screw atop the mill and utilizing the opening. There are six salt holes around the central screw. The screw is an unusual design element, as there are only a few JHQ designs with screws in this series. As seen in some Dansk ads and at least one private collection, a variant of this mill exists where the salt screw is replaced by a wooden cap. This variant appears to be extremely rare. 

Pepper is loaded via a plug in the base of this design. We have only seen the design with an all-wood base and a Peugeot grinder, suggesting an early production run that ceased once the ring-fill grinder design was introduced.

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The story of our research into what we call the Vanguard has taken a number of twists. This design is a mainstay of the JHQ series of peppermills, seen frequently on the resale market, appearing in many Dansk ads, and exemplifying the design language common to most of JHQ’s oeuvre. We’ve seen a couple of sources credit this mill as the first Quistgaard peppermill, although we have only circumstantial evidence to support that claim.

In the myriad of examples of this design we’ve seen, two distinct variants are easily identified. Some of the mills are more bulbous and rounded, while others are much more rectilinear and totemic. That comes as no surprise, as many of JHQ’s peppermills evolved throughout their production runs (see the UFO and the Acorn). We always assumed that the design iterations were sequential and followed changes in manufacturing locations, tooling, grinder mechanisms, etc. A fellow collector pointed out a fascinating bit of information. Both versions of this mill are listed in one Dansk catalog from 1959. Quite literally, the older, more bulbous variant is called “825A, Salt & Pepper Shaker, old”; the newer, more rectilinear version is “825B, Salt & Pepper Shaker, new.” What would cause Dansk to produce both versions simultaneously?

To add to the complexity of the story of the Vanguard design, there are also examples in woods other than teak. In the image gallery, we’ve added numbers to the various examples to aid in our descriptions.

Mills numbered 1 and 2 are model 825A. Its profile has an evenly convex curve for the entire height of the mill. This mill’s waist steps inwards just about one-third of the mill’s height from its base, with the grinder rotation point at the bottom of the waist. The rotation point is well masked due to the design’s top section fully slotting into the bottom. The top surface of the mill has nine salt holes total: eight in a ring around one in the center, all the same size. Mill 1 is made from teak. Mill 2 is most likely made from Pao Rosa (although possibly Cocobolo). We aren’t experts in identifying wood species, but Mill 2’s glossy surface, deep red color and slightly more fluid grain make us certain this is not teak. We’ve also noted that Mill 1’s curves are even more bulbous than Mill 2’s, although both are quite similar.

Mills numbered 3 and 4 are model 825B. This variant’s outer curvature becomes much more rectilinear. The grinder rotation point moves to the top of the mill’s waist, with the rotation line clearly visible because the joint is formed by a simple abuttal of two pieces of wood. As visible in the photos, this variant has seven salt holes all in one circle. Mill 3 made from Palisander (from the collection of Brent Buck) and may be a prototype. Mill 4 is teak. 

Stig Guldberg recently made us aware of another fascinating wrinkle to this design. An extremely rare version of this mill exists in Palisander, similar in profile to the 825B design, but about two-thirds the size of its bigger siblings. Perhaps due to the challenge of working with smaller-scale objects, its grinder rotation point moves from the corners of the shape’s profile to the center of the mill’s flat waist. 

As this design was further modernized in subsequent production, the mill became even more straight-sided and blocky. Its top surface further reduced the number of salt holes to six.

All varieties of this mill load salt and pepper via the two pairs of side plugs. We’ve observed this mill in an impressive variety of all-metal grinders: Peugeot with and without a band, Tre Spade, and an unmarked grinder that has a lot of similarity to the Tre Spade version. The existence of this mill in the all-metal Peugeot grinder with a bridge, as well as a finicky manufacturer stamp reading “Danmark” pressed directly into the outer rim of the base of that variant, suggests this mill is indeed one of the earliest JHQ designs. 

The name Vanguard is taken from Todd Pederzani’s earlier peppermill archive. Needless to say, the name implies this mill is the first of the series. We’ve struggled to come up with a clearer reference for this design and we welcome new suggestions. 

 

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The UFO is one of the most iconic and ubiquitous JHQ designs. Its long production life – from the earliest all-metal, banded grinders, through every generation of grinder we can identify, all the way to more modern metal-and-plastic grinders produced in Thailand – is a testament to its status as a signature Quistgaard peppermill. Notwithstanding the myriad of changes of this mill’s details, which we describe below, the overarching UFO shape consists of a wide base that tapers to a thin neck via an S-curve. A sharp line divides the neck from the disk-like top. The mill’s grinder rotation point is always at the connection between the neck and the top and is mostly hidden from view. Most of the mills have seven holes for dispersing salt, with a few of the most recent specimens only having six.

We selected the UFO as the case study best exemplifying the evolution of Quistgaard’s designs. Here we repeat the content from our Variants page.

In the photographs of the group of UFOs, we can trace the chronological evolution of this design, from earlier mills on the left to the more recent on the right.

1. Starting at the left, we have a Rare Woods example, most likely made from Palisander. One of the substantial changes of the UFO designs over its production run is the method for loading salt. Filling this iteration with salt requires unscrewing a flathead screw at the top of the mill (an uncommon design element in this series) and pouring salt through the resulting opening. The saucer shape is also different from the rest of the series – note the sharp line at its outer perimeter. 

Note: this UFO variation was most likely produced after the mill labeled (2). Our research was incomplete when we created this photograph. 

2. The second mill from the left is another Rare Woods UFO specimen, made from Mutenye. Its saucer has been smoothed at the outer edge, most likely a manufacturing requirement to mask the fact that the saucer is made up of two pieces of wood, with a horizontal butt joint at the outer perimeter of the saucer shape. The top of the saucer is smooth – no screws or plugs, apart from seven salt holes. This mill uses the fragile tooth-fill mechanism (see above). The flared out neck around the tooth-fill connection is most likely a practical consideration, taking into account that separating the two parts of this mill requires quite a bit of finessed twisting and pulling.

Note: this UFO variation was most likely produced before the mill labeled (1). Our research was incomplete when we created this photograph.

3. The middle mill is the iteration that became perhaps the most iconic design of this series of peppermills. Made from teak, this mill adds a pronounced top plug for filling salt and a plastic plug at the base of the mill for filling pepper. Overall, the shapes of this mill offer the most refined mix of exacting curvature and balanced hand-feel. The example shown has a Peugeot grinder and an all-wood base. A visually identical version of this mill exists with a Transitional Peugeot grinder, not shown.

4. The two rightmost mills are more recent productions, manufactured in Malaysia and Thailand. We can see that the shapes are no longer following JHQ’s earlier Mid-Century Modern design balance. In the fourth mill from the left, the carefully calibrated curves have become more blocky, with a wider neck relative to the base of the shape and the saucer taking on more of a pancake shape.

5. The mill on the right appears to have a droopy saucer with a more bulbous cap, becoming more reminiscent of a mushroom than an otherworldly explorer. 

 

A Few More Details

If you’re geeky enough to read all the text we’ve written for this website, you’ll notice that we use a lot of conditional statements. The reality of the research we’ve conducted is that primary materials have proven difficult to find. We’ve assembled a lot of our data from scraps of information distributed across a variety of sources, much of it less directly verifiable than we’d like to.

We believe this could be one of the first Quistgaard peppermills. Whether it was the first mill designed or the first mill manufactured we can’t say. (We can definitively say that we are certain that one mill had to be first) There are a few things that point to this as a candidate as an extremely early design.

The design of the base of this mill places it at the very beginning of JHQ’s design iterations. The word DANMARK curves around the narrow outer lip of the mill’s underside and surrounds a banded, all-metal Peugeot grinder. This base design only exists in a few other mills (the Apple Core, the Vanguard), all seen in early Dansk catalogs. We have not seen any other iterations of grinder types or base designs for this mill.

The “Tallest Bowtie” has one more unusual feature. While the grinder rotation point is the middle of the “knot” of the bowtie, above the knot there is an additional, well-masked line separating the body of wood. The mill unscrews at this point, revealing internal salt and pepper load points. The unique feature is the connection: an all-wood screw and thread. This detail only appears in one mill – the Moai, albeit at a smaller scale and less structurally significant location. We didn’t understand how this mill was loaded until a fellow collector asked us to document this feature. In our Tallest Bowtie, the wooden screw works wonderfully, with smooth, even action. We are intensely curious why this design feature was not used again and seems to have been replaced with the much more frustrating and fragile tooth-fill.

This model is one of several variations on a theme – the Bowtie shape. A bowtie can be generally described as some version of two cones meeting at their narrow point. Within the variety of peppermill forms Quistgaard designed, a few repeating themes can be traced as natural extensions of turned shapes, including at least four versions of bowtie shapes.

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Considering this mill from its base, a straight-sided cone tapers inward as it rises. About a third of the way up the mill, small 45 degree chamfers mask the grinder rotation point. The mill continues to rise following the cone profile, then curves inward to create a waist for this design. Above the waist, the mill rises as a mirror image of the base, albeit at a small scale. The overall impression is of a slightly eased industrial object. The “flared” descriptor comes from the overall impression of its shape and less so from any distinctly curved sections of its profile.

This model is one of several variations on a theme – the Bowtie shape. A bowtie can be generally described as some version of two cones meeting at their narrow point. Within the variety of peppermill forms Quistgaard designed, a few repeating themes can be traced as natural extensions of turned shapes, with at least three other versions of bowtie shapes.

In the specimen we were able to document, the salt cap atop the mill is missing. We’ve seen photos of the cap in the HEART museum JHQ retrospective documentation and have done our best to represent its appearance in the drawing of this design. Pepper is loaded via the underside of the mill. Salt is loaded through the central loading hole and is dispersed via six holes in the top rim-like surface.

This mill was a bit of a rumor for us and we had only seen glimpses of it in our research. Since this is an extremely rare design, we’ve only observed it in one grinder type: the all-metal Peugeot grinder. The wood on the underside of this mill is stamped with “DANMARK.”

From the collection of Brent Buck.

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There are many ways to tie a bowtie. Some make more attractive menswear accessories than others. The shape of the Skinny Bowtie will not be catching on as a new trend. 

The middle section of this design has one of the thinnest cross-sections of any JHQ design – it is less than an inch in diameter (25mm to be exact, our dear international readers). The grinder rotation point bisects the slender central tube, creating an awkward connection. This mill is somewhat rare, but we’ve seen a few of them for sale online over the years. A significant percentage of these items have a noticeable horizontal offset at the grinder rotation line, indicating a potential problem with the durability of this design.

We think of some JHQ designs as being in families of shapes – this mill is in the bowtie family. A bowtie can be generally described as some version of two cones meeting at their narrow point. Within the variety of peppermill forms Quistgaard designed, a few repeating themes can be traced as natural extensions of turned shapes, including at least four versions of bowtie shapes.

The top of this mill has six salt holes that surround a central salt-loading opening. The plug of this design has a mushroom cap and is made from solid wood. This mill’s top surface is bulbous rather than flat. Pepper is loaded via its base. We’ve only observed this mill with the transitional grinder and have not noticed any design variation in what was most likely a relatively short production run.

A Few More Details

This model is one of several variations on a theme – the Bowtie shape. A bowtie can be generally described as some version of two cones meeting at their narrow point. Within the variety of peppermill forms Quistgaard designed, a few repeating themes can be traced as natural extensions of turned shapes, including at least four versions of bowtie shapes.

The mill appears to be made up of two straight-sided cones, but both cones actually have a slight concave curve in their profile. The grinder rotation point is the narrowest point in the middle. There are sixteen salt holes at the top of the mill, which is more numerous than the typical six or eight found in other mills.

We’ve seen this model in the all-metal Peugeot grinder. Salt is loaded through the opening underneath the mill’s all-wood top cap. Pepper is loaded via a plastic plug in the bottom of the mill.

In 2009, Dansk restarted production on eight Quistgaard peppermills. The mills were made from acacia wood, produced with adjustable ceramic grinders, and heavily modified from Quistgaard’s original designs. The mills gained human names: Audrey, Jasper, Lisbet, Henrik, Rosie, Hank, Jane, and Jack- Medium Bowtie’s new pseudonym. As far as we know, JHQ did not name his peppermill designs. Our best guess is that the names were chosen to give the objects a greater sense of affability and Scandinavian character. While many online sources have tightly coupled these names to the designs, we should stress that there is absolutely no evidence that any mills prior to 2009 should be attributed with human names. 

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This design is one of the most diminutive JHQ peppermills, standing at just under five inches. Two dramatically pronounced toroids are joined by a thin neck, resulting in a compressed hourglass shape. The lower toroid contains pepper and is slightly larger than its salt-bearing upstairs neighbor. There are six salt holes at the top of the mill. The grinder rotation point is at the thinnest point of the neck at the center of the mill.

This design comes in two distinct variants. Earlier mills utilize the fragile tooth-fill mechanism. In this variant, in order to load salt and pepper, the user needs to separate the mill at the rotation point at the thinnest point of the neck. This process can be somewhat challenging, requiring quite a bit of dexterous twisting. We believe the tooth-fill mechanism was phased out due to issues with its operation and in this case, the mill was redesigned to use a standard salt cap. The tooth-filled mills have a flat, smooth top (apart from the salt holes). Later variants of this mill added a salt loading peg atop the mill and a rubber plug at the base of the mill for loading pepper. The top of the mill became a bit taller and more rounded, with the overall design taking on a bit more of a whimsical appearance.

We have only seen this mill with the all-metal base, indicating an early and relatively short production run. From our collection, the earlier exemplar with the tooth-fill mechanism has a Tre Spade grinder; the latter variant has an unmarked grinder, but given its design, we can be fairly confident it is also made by Tre Spade. This mill also exists with Peugeot grinders.

The Short Hourglass belongs to the family of hourglass shapes, of which there are five designs.

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This design is one of the most ubiquitous of the JHQ peppermill series, owing perhaps to its long production run. We’ve observed this design in every grinder variant, with this model even carried over into more modern production in blonde wood with a Lenox-branded grinder. Most of the generations of this design appear to be consistent in shape, with the exception of the Lenox iteration.

The Hourglass with Lip consists of two spherical lobes, with the top lobe slightly smaller in size. The lobes are connected by a gently tapered neck that flares out to form two lip-like shapes. The grinder rotation point rests between these matching lips. The overall design is reminiscent of traditional turned-wood shapes – the lobes of the design resemble door knobs and finials in both shape and scale.

The top of the mill has a larger than usual cap that covers the salt-loading point, with cork being used to make the interior connection in our all-metal grinder specimen. Salt is dispersed via eight salt holes. Pepper is loaded through the base of this mill.

The Hourglass with Lip belongs to the family of hourglass shapes, of which there are five designs.

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The Hourglass with Crank belongs to the family of hourglass shapes, of which there are five designs. This mill’s body is perhaps the simplest of the Hourglasses – two nearly-equal spherical lobes joined by a tapered neck. As if to contrast with the restraint of the design’s body, all the drama happens atop the mill. A cylinder emerges from the mill’s top lobe. This cylinder is further intersected with a tear-drop horizontal arm. But wait! We’re not done yet. Another vertical element – a cone – impales the spherical end of the teardrop, much like an exclamation point. We often wonder the level of humor JHQ allowed himself in his designs. This mill seems like it approaches peak whimsy.

One note we should make is that both the horizontal and vertical embellishments atop this mill are removable. They also rotate freely. So if you see a version of this mill with the vertical cone pointed downwards, rest assured it can be turned upright. We are confident the configuration pictured in our photography is correct, as it matches the Dansk square product booklet from the late 1960s.

This mill does not dispense salt. We have only observed it with the all-metal Peugeot grinder. It is a fairly rare design, most likely owing to an early and brief production period.

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We’ve debated if this mill belongs to the Hourglass family or the Mushroom family of designs. While its cap and base are quite similar to the Mushrooms, the relative size of the top and bottom lobes are more reminiscent of an hourglass. This design’s visual harmony with what we call the Hourglass with Lip further swayed us to induct this mill into the Hourglass family. Perhaps this design was intended to bridge the two typologies. Perhaps each object was its own design, with similarities being cursory or a matter of convenience.

The base of this mill is a gently tapered cone, cutting to a dramatically narrow and tall neck. The middle of the neck contains a sizable flat ring, bisected in the middle by the mill’s grinder rotation line. The neck then gently eases into a spherical top, slightly compressed in the vertical dimension. The top of the mill has a regular, tapered salt plug, surrounded by six salt holes. Pepper is loaded through the bottom of the mill.

In 2009, Dansk restarted production on eight Quistgaard peppermills. The mills were made from acacia wood, produced with adjustable ceramic grinders, and heavily modified from Quistgaard’s original designs. The mills gained human names: Jack, Audrey, Jasper, Lisbet, Henrik, Rosie, Hank, and Jane – Skinny Hourglass with Lip’s new pseudonym. As far as we know, JHQ did not name his peppermill designs. Our best guess is that the names were chosen to give the objects a greater sense of affability and Scandinavian character. While many online sources have tightly coupled these names to the designs, we should stress that there is absolutely no evidence that any mills prior to 2009 should be attributed with human names. 

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By far the tallest Quistgaard peppermill design, this mill appears to be one of the most recent additions to this series of designs. We’ve only seen this mill produced with the plastic grinder, with relatively few items being produced in Denmark and most of the items manufactured during the later production runs in Thailand and Malaysia. Although not conclusive, we believe this suggests the design is one of the most recent.

At seventeen inches tall, this mill feels like a novelty item. While it complements the other JHQ designs when viewed together, it’s somewhat difficult to imagine casually keeping this massive item on a dining table. Despite its comical proportions, the operation of this mill is effortless. The circumference of the narrowest points of this design is similar to others of the series, meaning it fits nicely in hands of most sizes.

The Super Tall Hourglass belongs to the family of hourglass shapes, of which there are five designs. The Super Tall Hourglass is very similar to the shape of the mill we refer to as the Hourglass with Lip, stretched dramatically.

This design does not disperse salt. The grinder rotation point is at the lip two thirds up the mill. This design uses the most volume of wood in this series by a significant margin.

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This mill belongs to the mushroom family of shapes. They can be described as having a conical base below a relatively slender neck, topped by a squashed sphere – altogether resembling a convex cap mushroom.

The Double Lip Mushroom is the tallest of this family, with an elongated, conical base that tapers as it rises. This mill gets its name from the two donut-like lips between its base and neck. The grinder rotates at the valley between the two lips. Like all mushroom mills, salt is loaded at the top via a single round peg, which is surrounded by six salt holes in this design.

We have only observed a couple of examples of this mill. The one in our collection has an all-metal, unmarked grinder and a loading hole for pepper in the base of the mill.

We had a standing debate about whether the Double Lip Mushroom and the Single Lip Mushroom are indeed two separate designs. We know that a couple of other mills had their shapes noticeably altered over their production runs, most notably the Vanguard and the UFO designs. Could this mill have lost one of its lips as a refinement of this design? The overall proportions of the Single and Double Lip Mushrooms are similar enough where an iterative revision is conceivable.

As we obtained further primary materials, it became clear that these two mushroom mills were in fact two separate designs. They appear in several ads and internal Dansk materials together as separate designs. The two mills also have two separate model numbers (831 and 832), but the numbers are used interchangeably – sometimes the Double Lip is 831, sometimes it’s 832. To further confuse matters, the Chess Queen is also identified as #832. We have a theory: the Double Lip Mushroom appears to have had a particularly short production run, given the grinder types we’ve observed it in. Perhaps the Chess Queen, which has later grinders, simply reused the model number. 

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This mill belongs to the mushroom family of shapes that are characterized by a round, columnal base, a slender neck, topped by a squashed ball resembling traditional convex cap fungi.

The Single Lip Mushroom is slightly shorter than his double-lipped cousin. The grinder rotation point is situated just beneath its single lip and, like all mushroom mills, salt is loaded at the top via a single round peg. This mill features six salt holes. The similarities between the two taller Mushroom mills are striking: the shapes of their mushroom caps are almost identical, as are the diameters of their conical base segments. The shapes of the lips do diverge a bit between the designs. The Double Lip has flatter, taller rings, with a more pronounced transition to what we might call the shoulder area of the mill. The Single Lip’s toroidal lip is more uniformly curved, integrating the shoulder into the lip’s curvature and cinching inward to a more clearly defined neck. A similar difference can be observed underneath the mushroom cap of the mill – if we consider the cap to be the head of the mill, then the Single Lip Mushroom has a more clearly defined jawline.

Both the Double Lip and Single Lip Mushroom designs feature all-metal grinders, however, the Single Lip’s grinder is branded by “Peugeot.” The salt holes of the Single Lip Mushroom are just a hair closer to the salt loading hole than its Double Lip relative.

There is a bit of intrigue around the model numbers of this mill, the Double Lip Mushroom, and the Chess Queen. We’ve observed both the single- and double-lipped mushrooms referred to as model numbers 831 and 832, interchangeably. The Chess Queen is also #832. Our theory is that the Double Lip Mushroom had a particularly short production run and was no longer manufactured by the time the Chess Queen came around, which implies the Single Lip Mushroom was indeed intended to be #831. 

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We’ve had a debate if this mill belongs to the Mushroom family. Finally, we decided that since it gives an overall impression of a mushroom, the debate is silly. Our hangup stems from the fact that other mushrooms in JHQ’s series have skinny necks above wider bodies, whereas this design has one wide, monolithic shaft defining a vast majority of its profile. But most people still see a mushroom, focusing on this design’s distinctive cap.

This mill’s profile rises as a slightly tapered, straight-sided conical shaft. Three sets of double beads adorn its shaft, all equal in profile and spacing. Each bead (or lip, or donut) follows a roughly circular profile, although, given their small size, we are hard-pressed to assert if each bead is a circle or an ellipse. Above the shaft lies a droopy, ellipsoid cap. In older variants, this mill has twelve holes for dispersing salt. To load salt, the mill’s large, pancake-like cap needs to be removed. Pepper is loaded via the mill’s underside. The line between the cap and shaft hides the grinder rotation point.

Seemingly a mainstay of the JHQ peppermill series, we’ve observed this mill with every grinder generation. The design’s details undergo a few revisions over the production run. As the grinder generations chronologically progress, the shape of the mill’s cap becomes progressively taller; the shaft slightly edges skinnier and more tapered. The later variants have fewer salt holes, although we’ve had a hard time getting an exact count. In the all-metal variants, the mill’s salt cap is made entirely from teak. Later generations use a teak and cork design. Our all-metal specimen has unusually expressed, almost rough wood grain on the mill’s shaft.

In 2009, Dansk restarted production on eight Quistgaard peppermills. The mills were made from acacia wood, produced with adjustable ceramic grinders, and heavily modified from Quistgaard’s original designs. The mills gained human names: Jack, Jasper, Lisbet, Henrik, Rosie, Hank, Jane, and Audrey – Tall Ribbed Mushroom’s new pseudonym. As far as we know, JHQ did not name his peppermill designs. Our best guess is that the names were chosen to give the objects a greater sense of affability and Scandinavian character. While many online sources have tightly coupled these names to the designs, we should stress that there is absolutely no evidence that any mills prior to 2009 should be attributed with human names. 

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This mill is perhaps the most mushroom-like of the mushroom family of JHQ mills. Its cap most closely resembles a natural mushroom – a spheroid with a dramatically concave underside. A slender neck connects the mill’s cap and stocky body. The size disparity of the neck and the shapes it connects causes the cap to appear to float above the body from many angles. Just the cap and neck are enough to communicate the shape of a mushroom, with the body of the mill drawing on more non-specific references.

Despite its blocky appearance, this mill is one of JHQ’s smaller designs. The mill’s body contains a number of ridges or ribs (hence the name). At first glance, the ribs all appear to be the same. However, on closer examination, two distinct types of ribs can be observed. Every third rib has a sharper convex outer edge, whereas the other two are much more gentle in curvature. The ridges are reminiscent of traditional woodturning details, unlike the more modern shapes of the rest of this design.

This mill is extremely rare, but we have been able to verify two variants of this design. The variant featured in our photographs utilizes the fragile tooth-fill mechanism for loading salt and pepper, with the connection point mostly out of sight at the base of the neck of this mill. Another variant of this mill exists with a top plug for loading salt and a hole in its underside for loading pepper, which seems to be a refinement to avoid the tooth-fill mechanism. For both variants, the top of the mill has six salt holes and an all-wood base. Peugeot grinders appear to be correlated with the variant with the tooth-fill grinder and Tre Spade and Unmarked grinders with the variant that uses external spice loading holes.

The photographed mill is from the collection of Brent Buck.

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This mill belongs to the mushroom family of shapes that are characterized by a round, columnal base, a slender neck, topped by a squashed ball resembling traditional convex cap fungi.

The Short Mushroom is a compressed variant of the mushroom shapes – much wider and more stout than its taller mushroom cousins. Despite this mill’s appearance of sitting on a completely cylindrical hockey puck of a base, the lowest portion of this mill is also a slightly tapered cone. As we go up the mill, its profile steps inward via a hairline jog, then draws a large fillet shape to the mill’s truly cylindrical neck. Its grinder rotation point is situated just beneath the mushroom cap top, obscuring it from view. Like all mushroom mills, salt is loaded at the top via a single round peg. Unlike the narrow round pegs found on most JHQ mills, the Short Mushroom’s peg features a flattened disc. This mill has eight salt holes, two more than its cousins.

While both the Double Lip and Single Lip Mushroom designs feature all-metal grinders, this design has only been observed in transitional and all-plastic grinders. One notable difference between the two generations of mills is how their bodies have been assembled. The earlier mills are made up of two hemispheres of teak, glued together as two equal lobes, with a vertical joint running the entire height of the mill. Later variants, with all-plastic grinders, are made from single pieces of teak for the mill’s base and top.

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The Nubbin shares a number of similarities with the Short Mushroom. Both designs’ stature is quite similar, as are their slightly droopy ellipsoid tops and blocky pedestals. The most prominent difference between the two designs occurs in the Nubbin’s base. The compound shape of the bottom half of the Nubbin is a cylinder, topped with a blended donut, then intersected by a cube. You’ll note the scalloped edges at the top of the flat sides of its base, as well as its filleted vertical corners. Keeping the base within the outlines of a cube lessens its overall size, leading the top ellipsoid to appear to be the most prominent feature of this design. The extra-large cap crowning the mill further draws attention to the mill’s apex and combined with the squat nature of its overall profile leads us to call this design the Nubbin. While the Nubbin’s shape is quite reminiscent of the Mushroom family, the square base of this mill firmly sets this design outside of the naturally-inspired Mushroom group.

Salt is loaded via the large plug atop this mill and is dispensed via eight salt holes. Pepper is loaded via the mill’s base. The mill spins around a line directly underneath its bulbous top. 

We’ve only observed this design in the transitional grinder generation, leading us to believe this mill had a relatively short production run. Like many other mills from the transitional grinder period, we’ve noted that the finish on most of the Nubbins we’ve seen in the resale market is much more glossy than most JHQ peppermills produced during other periods.

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Perhaps one of our least imaginative names for a JHQ peppermill, the Four Donuts design consists of four toroids superimposed onto a cylindrical shaft. The profile of each of the four tori is an ellipse, being slightly taller than wider. The torus at the top of the mill overlaps the cylindrical shaft by only a quarter of its profile, leaving three-quarters of the donut visible and emphasizing the dramatically bulbous quality of the entire design. The mill is topped by a salt cap with a sphere that matches the profile of each torus, much like a donut hole matching the rest of the desert.

This mill rotates around a cut line below the second donut, counting from the top of the mill. For most observers looking at this mill from above, the cut line will be invisible. Salt is loaded through the top of the mill and dispensed by eight salt holes. Pepper is loaded from the base of the mill.

We have observed this mill in both the Transitional Peugeot grinder and the Plastic Denmark grinder, indicating a middle-to-late production period. No notable design changes were observed between the two generations, although we must note that the Transitional example we’ve owned is one of the most glossy-finished mills in our collection. We’ve observed similarly glossy finishes on many of the online listings for these mills.

In 2009, Dansk restarted production on eight Quistgaard peppermills. The mills were made from acacia wood, produced with adjustable ceramic grinders, and heavily modified from Quistgaard’s original designs. The mills gained human names: Jack, Audrey, Jasper, Lisbet, Rosie, Hank, Jane, and Henrik – Four Donut’s new pseudonym. As far as we know, JHQ did not name his peppermill designs. Our best guess is that the names were chosen to give the objects a greater sense of affability and Scandinavian character. While many online sources have tightly coupled these names to the designs, we should stress that there is absolutely no evidence that any mills prior to 2009 should be attributed with human names. 

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Peeking out above their JHQ brethren, these mills’ distinctive, blade-like apex defines their design. The mills share the same overall shape: to create the body, a circular base gently tapers to a thin neck. The taper follows a curve to create an elegant, attenuated shape. Above the body, the head of the mill is a more complex surface. A bowl-like shape (perhaps half a stretched sphere, a.k.a hemiellipsoid, or perhaps a circular hyperboloid, who can tell, really) is cut away by two cylinders. The resulting blade atop the mill reminds us of a screwdriver head and its long, slender body reinforces the reference to the commonly used tool. Unsurprisingly, this mill is part of the Screwdriver family of shapes.

We believe it’s safe to assume that these two mills were designed and sold as a pair – the shorter mill only dispenses salt, the taller only grinds pepper – and they look better together than apart. But we don’t have any direct evidence that these mills were indeed tightly coupled, either in design or retail. To offer a counterpoint, their Rare Woods Screwdriver Twins relatives do have verified individual model numbers.

This pair’s pepper grinder spins around a line between the body and head and stands at approximately 12” tall. We’ve only observed this design in the all-metal Peugeot grinder. The salt shaker stands at 10” tall, has five salt holes in the top blade, and salt is loaded via a plug in the underside of the mill. Both of our mills are stamped with “DANMARK” on their underside, leading us to believe that they were made early in the series of JHQ mills – the spelling of the country of manufacture reads “Denmark” for all but the earliest of mills.

 

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Holding the title of the third-tallest teak JHQ peppermill, this design further distinguishes itself by a near-complete lack of drama. The Inset Screwdriver follows the general outline of its namesake tool shape but cuts down on curvature and expressive design language. A nearly straight-sided cone makes up the bottom three-quarters of its body. The mill’s top portion is another almost rectilinear cone, expanding as it rises. At the apex, the mill steps in and is cut away to create a bowl-like shape. The mill’s salt plug follows the template of the other flathead screwdrivers in the JHQ series – a hemispherical element that has been cut away by two cylinders, leaving sharp horizontal ridges. In this design, the screwdriver’s bit is recessed (or “inset”) into the mill’s top, leading to our name for the mill.

Salt is loaded into the mill by removing its large salt plug. The salt plug itself has salt holes – three to be exact, centered and parallel with the top ridges of the screwdriver shape. We believe that this is the only design where the salt plug also has salt holes in JHQ’s peppermills. Pepper is loaded via the mill’s underside. The grinder rotation point is clearly visible, just above the middle of the design. To the surprise of no one, we think of this mill as a part of the Screwdriver family of shapes.

We’ve observed this mill in the all-plastic grinder produced in Denmark. We believe this mill also exists in the all-plastic grinder produced in Thailand, but we haven’t been able to verify it with photos since we started keeping track. We’ve definitely seen this design produced in blonde wood as well, but that variation is a bit outside our scope. The mill’s grinder generations lead us to believe this design comes late into the JHQ peppermill series. Taking into account the similar grinder generations and immense scale of this mill and the Super Tall Hourglass, we believe there may have been a desire for oversize peppermills towards the end of JHQ’s design oeuvre.

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The Eyeliner’s nickname is taken from Todd Pederzani’s defunct archive. Because the name implies a modestly sized object, we were stunned by the size of this mill. At over fourteen inches in height, this is the second-tallest JHQ design.

This peppermill rises as a nearly unadorned monolith, following an extremely shallow convex profile. About a third up the mill, two round divots (perhaps more accurately described as scotias) suggest a location to place your hand. The outer edges of these divots are marked by 45 degree chamfers, with the top indent masking the grinder rotation point. The shape above cuts inward to create flat sides, much like a screwdriver shape and placing this design into the Screwdriver family. Perhaps due to the size, this mill’s embellishments are some of the most ergonomic of the JHQ mills. The shapes of the design suggest hand positions and aid in turning this large object.

As there is an extremely limited quantity of this design in the resale market, it’s not surprising that we’ve only observed it with one grinder type: the all-plastic grinder produced in Denmark. That puts this design towards the end of the series production line and aligns it with the other giant mill, the Super Tall Hourglass. Perhaps this era of JHQ mills either called for or allowed larger designs. Like its giant friend, this mill does not disperse salt.

From the collection of Brent Buck.

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The Flathead design gets its name from its similarity to a flathead screwdriver. A tapered cylinder is carved away to create a flat blade at the top of this mill. The shapes of The Flathead are less expressive than most JHQ peppermills, featuring an almost austere, rectilinear overall profile. This mill is a part of the Screwdriver family of shapes.

Salt is loaded via two side plugs. We should note that all other JHQ designs that use plugs have either one salt plug or four side plugs, two each for loading salt and pepper. In the Flathead, pepper is loaded via the base of the mill, using the generational varieties of pepper-loading mechanisms. The top surface of the flathead blade has three salt holes. The grinder rotation point is between the two small donut shapes in the middle of the mill. 

The Flathead design exists with most of the generations of grinder types: the all-metal grinder, all-plastic Danish grinders, and the subsequent modern production. The design appears unchanged until production moved to Asia, after which slight modifications begin to be noticeable. Most notably, the diameter of the two donuts around the grinder rotation point grows, and all the formerly sharp edges of this mill become eased.

In 2009, Dansk restarted production on eight Quistgaard peppermills. The mills were made from acacia wood, produced with adjustable ceramic grinders, and heavily modified from Quistgaard’s original designs. The mills gained human names: Jack, Audrey, Jasper, Lisbet, Henrik, Rosie, Jane, and Hank – Four Donut’s new pseudonym. As far as we know, JHQ did not name his peppermill designs. Our best guess is that the names were chosen to give the objects a greater sense of affability and Scandinavian character. While many online sources have tightly coupled these names to the designs, we should stress that there is absolutely no evidence that any mills prior to 2009 should be attributed with human names. 

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The Octagonal Mallet design has two non-turned elements, a rarity for a Quistgaard peppermill. The top of the mill is a tapered octagonal extrusion and the base of the mill is a tapered cube. A blended cylindrical shape forms the transition, leaving scalloped edges at the intersections with the orthogonal shapes. The overall geometry is a bit outside the usual JHQ proportions, with the design leaving the impression of a hefty, imposing object.

This design utilizes the fragile and rare tooth fill mechanism. The salt and pepper are loaded by detaching the top and bottom of the mill at the grinder rotation point in the middle of the object. We do not know if the tooth fill mechanism ever worked well, but we have found taking apart this mill to be a struggle.

There are six salt holes at the top of the mill. The base of the mill is one of the most unadorned of this series – a completely flat surface with a single recess for the grinder.

This is one of the more rare JHQ designs. It exists only with the all-metal Peugeot grinder, which points to a relatively short production run at the beginning of this series of peppermills.

This design’s model number is in conflict with the Satellite Top. We believe the Satellite Top was produced later, which could have led to the model number being reused. 

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Perhaps unfairly, we think of this mill, along with the Cylinder and Sphere, the Cylinder and Cube, and to a lesser extent the Orb, as the Simple Euclideans. Not discounting these mills’ detailing and finesse, their shapes are defined by intersections of fully expressed, isolated foundational shapes: spheres, cubes, cylinders. What fun, for us crazy people who write fifty detailed descriptions of a bunch of wooden shapes!

The Cone and Sphere features a sphere impaled by a cone. The cone shape is not a true cone – the section below the sphere has a bit of a concave profile, while the cone above the sphere is straight-sided. If we extrapolate and connect the profiles of the almost-conical sections above and below the sphere, we believe the resulting profile will actually be somewhat parabolic. Nevertheless, the overall appearance leaves the impression of a conical shape. The cone is blended into the sphere with a generous fillet underneath the spherical element, but is entirely unblended above.

The entire conical topper of this design is the mill’s salt plug. We love the oversized plug, perhaps the tallest of the JHQ series. The design’s massive salt loading hole is surrounded by twelve punctures for dispersing salt. We do question how well this mill performed its function, as our salt plug doesn’t stay in place when the mill is inverted. Pepper is loaded via the base of the mill. This mill spins around a fairly obvious line in the middle of the sphere. We’ve only observed this mill in an all-metal Peugeot grinder.

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Perhaps unfairly, we think of this mill, along with the Cone and Sphere, the Cylinder and Cube, and to a lesser extent the Orb, as the Simple Euclideans. Not discounting these mills’ detailing and finesse, their shapes are defined by intersections of fully expressed, isolated foundational shapes: spheres, cubes, cylinders. What fun, for us crazy people who write fifty detailed descriptions of a bunch of wooden shapes!

The Cylinder and Sphere features a cylinder situated underneath a sphere. These two shapes are separated by a cone-like neck, which continues through the sphere to form a truncated conical apex for the design. A very simple, elegant design. Might be our shortest complete description.

The conical apex of this mill is actually its salt plug. We’ve only identified this design in the transitional grinder and like many of this generation’s mills, the salt plug makes its connection to the mill’s body via a cork element. Eight salt holes located on the surface of the sphere surround the central salt loading hole. Pepper is loaded via the underside of the mill. The grinder rotates around a line between the design’s cylindrical case and conical neck.

A Few More Details

Perhaps unfairly, we think of this mill, along with the Cone and Sphere, the Cylinder and Sphere, and to a lesser extent the Orb, as the Simple Euclideans. Not discounting these mills’ detailing and finesse, their shapes are defined by intersections of fully expressed, isolated foundational shapes: spheres, cubes, cylinders. What fun, for us crazy people who write fifty detailed descriptions of a bunch of wooden shapes!

The Cylinder and Cube features a cube intersected by a cylinder. One of the few non-turned JHQ shapes, the cube is further set apart by its use of fairly sharp corners. Most other straight-sided shapes in the JHQ production have much bigger fillets or chamfers. In this mill, the suspended cube has minimally eased corners, just enough not to look unfinished. At the top of the mill, the cylinder shape is carved away into a shallow bowl. The design is topped by a salt plug with a vertically compressed ellipsoid handle.

This mill’s grinder rotation point is located along the top surface of the cube. It is almost imperceptible, aided by the sharp corner between the cube and cylinder above. The rim at the cylinder at the top of the design has eight salt holes. Salt is loaded via the centrally located salt hole in the top bowl-like depression, pepper is loaded via the mill’s underside.

We’ve only observed this mill in the transitional Peugeot grinder. This is a fairly rare design.

This design’s model number conflicts with the Rare Woods Totem. The Rare Woods Totem was created as part of the Rare Woods series in the early 1960s and the Cylinder and Cube was created about a decade later. We believe the model number was simply reused. 

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The Double Cube sets itself apart by eschewing the turned shapes typical to JHQ’s designs. This mill is predominantly rectilinear, with turned profiles constituting only the depression in the top surface of the design and the mill’s waist. By its stature and mirrored design, this mill reminds us of the Double Barrel, but due to this model’s later production run, most of the implementation details set these mills far apart.

This mill is actually made up of two half-cube elements – the height of each lobe of the mill is roughly half the dimension of their sides. Indeed, this design is a bit more of a bisected cube. Because there are a couple of other “double” titled mills (Double Barrel, Double Pear), we wanted this design to have some compatriots. Double Cube is better than Double Half-Cube or Double Tetrahedron, right?

The tetrahedral lobe on the bottom is slightly taller than the top lobe, with a waist in between then defined by a donut subtraction. The mill’s grinder rotation point is the innermost point of the waist. Another subtraction, resulting in a bowl-like in shape, adds definition to the top of the design. The mill’s apex is an extra-wide salt plug, similar to the typical JHQ plug in its height and taper, but several times as wide. A unique feature of this mill is the location of its salt holes – there are no separate penetrations for salt. Instead, the large central salt hole has four smaller appendages that are not covered by its central plug, which allows salt to pour through.

We believe this design is a relatively recent addition to the JHQ series of peppermills. We’ve only observed it in the all-plastic grinder, with a relatively small number in the resale market originating in Denmark. The Danish-marked mills are made of staved wood, later mills produced in Thailand use single pieces of teak for the top and bottom lobes. The shapes of the mill also change between production locations, with the tetrahedral lobes becoming slightly larger relative to the mill’s base in later examples. More recent metal and plastic grinder variants have also been observed.

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Matching its short name, Orb is perhaps the simplest and most monolithic JHQ design. Its fully spherical body has a toroidal depression at the equator and stands on a modest, conical pedestal. The design is topped with a typical JHQ salt plug, which falsely reads to be larger than its true size due to the mill’s diminutive stature. The salt plug is surrounded by seven salt holes. The grinder rotates around a line located in the valley of its equatorial depression. Pepper is loaded via the mill’s base. 

During most of our time collecting, we saw this mill in the transitional Peugeot grinder and the all-plastic grinder made in Denmark. There are no notable differences in shape between the two earlier generations. We recently observed a version of this design produced in Thailand. This version’s shape was notably modified, becoming more blocky and less of a perfect bisected sphere.

In 2009, Dansk restarted production on eight Quistgaard peppermills. The mills were made from acacia wood, produced with adjustable ceramic grinders, and heavily modified from Quistgaard’s original designs. The mills gained human names: Jack, Audrey, Jasper, Henrik, Rosie, Hank, Jane, and Lisbet – Orb’s new pseudonym. As far as we know, JHQ did not name his peppermill designs. Our best guess is that the names were chosen to give the objects a greater sense of affability and Scandinavian character. While many online sources have tightly coupled these names to the designs, we should stress that there is absolutely no evidence that any mills prior to 2009 should be attributed with human names. 

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The Bullet is one of the only Quistgaard peppermills where the main element of the design is the plan rather than the elevation. The majority of JHQ’s mills can be easily identified by how their shape can be created by a lathe. In other words, look at a JHQ mill from the side, consider its outline, and rotate that shape around a central axis. The result is a turned shape, i.e. a shape that can be made on a lathe. In the case of the Bullet, its profile is unremarkable. This mill derives both its nickname and distinctive design from the flutes running along its body.

The Bullet belongs to a group of JHQ designs with a traditional inflection. It joins the Chess Queen, Heart, Rook, and a few others, drawing references to pre-modern decorative shapes with beads, rosettes, and this mill’s Ionic-inspired flutes. Even the terminus of the Bullet’s fluting at its apex is reminiscent of the top of an Ionic column’s shaft, ending in curves that connect the flute ridges. To contrast with the direct quotations of antiquity, JHQ’s overall shape for the Bullet distinguishes the mill’s design from a strict homage to the classical Roman order.

We think of the Bullet as an object built for speed. Air currents must be creating the valleys and ridges of its flutes. That’s definitely our explanation for this mill’s nickname, especially after we did a bit of image searching and realized that bullets are not fluted (sometimes gun barrels are fluted). Nevertheless, the mill’s overall shape is still quite similar to the bullet. We’re… ahem… sticking to our guns.

This peppermill has eight flutes on its perimeter, with each flute (i.e. valley) having the same oval profile. The spaces between the flutes follow a circular perimeter shape. There are eight salt holes at the top of the mill, one in the middle of each outer ridge between the flutes. The rotation point is not masked, seen clearly as the eased cutline two-thirds of the way up the mill. Working the grinder of this design creates an interesting alternative shape if the flutes are staggered between the top and bottom of the mill. Pepper is loaded from the bottom.

We’ve only seen this design with the transitional Peugeot grinder. As with many mills of this generation, the teak cap has cork extending into the body of the mill.

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Despite its elegant shape, the Chess Queen is an imposing peppermill. This design is one of the taller JHQ mills. Combined with a fairly large diameter, the size of this mill is particularly expressed when the item is held. Most of the JQH mills of this height have sections that are quite a bit thinner – this mill is wide throughout. Never underestimate a queen’s power.

This mill belongs to a group of JHQ designs with a traditional inflection. It joins the Oval Tab, Heart, Rook, and a few others, drawing references to pre-modern decorative shapes with beads, rosettes, and a few other shapes with more esoteric names (cavetto? congé? scotia? all the fun party guests). The Chess Queen could technically be thought of as a Bowtie: two conical segments meeting as their thinnest point. In this design, the connection between the two cones is decorated with a series of elements that reference traditional woodworking details. From our cursory research into traditional wood profiles, we believe the shapes can be most accurately described as two beads (those would be mill’s the two donuts) in between two cavettos (the curves that join the donuts to the cones). Altogether, this mill also reminds us of a traditional stair baluster. No doubt JHQ would have been keenly aware that this design reads as perhaps his most traditionally influenced peppermill.

At the top of the mill, six salt holes surround a salt loading hole, closed by a modestly sized mushroom plug. Pepper is loaded via the mill’s underside. This design spins around a joint underneath its lower donut, creating an imperceptible connection between the two halves of the mill. Starting with the transitional grinder generation, we’ve observed this peppermill in all subsequent grinders. Notable differences in the mill’s proportions can be seen in every generation – the relationship between the top and bottom lobes of the mill drifts towards the mill appearing top-heavy, the curvature of the design’s cavettos go through a series of simplifications, and the overall mill becomes substantially shorter. 

This mill’s model number is in conflict with either the Single Lip Mushroom or the Double Lip Mushroom (who’s model numbers appear to be used interchangeably). Our theory is that #832 belonged to the Double Lip Mushroom, which appears to have gone out of production by the time the Chess Queen arrived. 

This mill was acquired by the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2003 and is one of the only examples we could find of an American museum collection holding a teak JHQ peppermill.

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One of the most common references we hear in conjunction with Quistgaard’s peppermills is a chess set. The reference to chess is particularly potent when JHQ’s mills are viewed in series. Taken individually, most of the fifty or so designs draw other, more direct references. We use chess terms for four mills: Queen, Rook, Smaller Rook, and the King himself, this mill. The design reference may be a bit of a stretch – a king piece in a traditional chess set has a cross at its apex when viewed from the side, rather than the top. Nevertheless, the cross element that makes up the head of this mill is still a potent symbol, even though it has been rotated. Most of the chess piece JHQ mills also reference more traditional designs than most other mills in his series. We see the petal-shaped fluting of the neck of this mill as related to acanthus leaves on a corinthian column, amplifying the stately air of this design.

The profile of this mill begins at a round base, rising as a slightly tapered cone. The mill has a shallow waist (technically a sunken fillet), which allows for the profiles above and below this element to be imperceptibly out of plane with one another. The mill’s neck is a complex surface, with four flat sides carved into a curved, turned profile. Above the neck, a cross-shaped head rises as an extrusion with chamfered edges. The mill is topped by a moderately wide salt plug with a tiny mushroom cap. Around the salt plug, eight holes dispense salt, two per side of the cross shape. Pepper is loaded via the underside of the mill.

We’ve observed this mill in the all-metal, transitional and all-plastic grinders, all labeled as manufactured in Denmark. Our all-metal grinder is unmarked but shares a remarkable similarity to the Peugeot grinder design. The shapes of this mill are quite consistent throughout its production run. The only difference is a subtle drift in where the “petal” shapes on the mill’s neck intersect with its base – the all-metal generation has the bottom of the petals perfectly kiss the mill’s circular base. The transitional grinder generation’s petals are incised into the mill’s base, creating additional scalloped shapes. Plastic-grinder mills leave an extra space between the petals and the circular base. No doubt, this is a difficult detail to execute consistently.

This mill has a model number conflict with the Rare Woods Double Pear. 

 

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The Rook resembles the corner chess piece. In the game of chess, the rook represents a castle tower – a powerful piece in symbolic warfare. Appropriately monolithic and imposing, this JHQ peppermill is a totemic, slightly tapered cone with flat sides. In the middle of the mill, the shape steps inward slightly to create a waist, transitioning between the outer and inner diameter by way of fillets. The top of the mill breaks with the simple geometry of the rest of the design and features an almost traditional bullseye rosette.

Salt is loaded by removing the top plug and dispersed by the surrounding six salt holes. Pepper is loaded through the base of the mill. The grinder rotation point sits at the top of the mill’s central waist. We have identified another rook-like mill, which we call the Smaller Rook, creating another shape family within JHQ’s designs.

We have only observed this mill in the transitional, ring-fill Peugeot grinder. While not an exceedingly rare design, the fact that it only appears to exist in one grinder variant points to a short production run.

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One of the Chess nicknames we’ve chosen for a few JHQ peppermills, this mill is perhaps even more reminiscent of a traditional rook than its larger cousin. In chess, the rook symbolizes a castle tower – a powerful, heavy piece, both in symbolism and value. What this design lacks in physical stature, it makes up in the detailing that brings this piece into the traditionally inflected JHQ design language.

The overall shape of the mill can be described as two slightly unequal cylinders with a toroidal subtraction making up the neck between them. The outer extents of the mill’s neck are punctuated by two blended beads, creating sharp depressions that separate the neck’s shape from its surrounding cylinders. Drawing on the architectural shapes of antiquity, we believe the most accurate description of these “blended beads” is actually a “quirked cyma reversa” (we encourage our nerdier readers to google that). A rosette adds definition to the top surface of the mill, centered around a standard JHQ plug for loading salt. In the design’s top surface, eight holes for dispersing salt surround the larger hole for loading salt. Pepper is loaded via the underside of this mill.

This design is somewhat rare and we’ve only observed it with a transitional Peugeot grinder.

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Perhaps we do not do this design justice with an unappealing nickname. But we do think it’s hard to deny that this peppermill looks like a plumbing implement, regardless of the elegance of its constituent shapes. This mill is among the rarest teak peppermills. While this is pure conjecture, perhaps its lack of popularity is related to the association with a less-than-glamorous household implement.

Considering the mill from its base, the design follows the profile of a gently tapered cone, decorated with a few traditional wood carving embellishments. Because we’ve done some research about traditional profiles, we feel moderately confident that the profile can be described as a cavetto, followed by a cyma reversa, then a bead. Further above, we find a cyma recta and then an opposing cavetto. All in all, the shapes are horizontally mirrored over the central bead, although the top shapes decrease in size as the overall cone profile tapers. These flourishes place the design in the company of other traditionally-inflected mills, such as the Chess Queen, Oval Tab and Rook.

Above the base, the mill sweeps inwards to a fairly slender neck. The middle of the neck contains the grinder rotation point. Since this is an extremely rare mill, we’ve only observed a handful of examples. In the mill we’ve photographed (courtesy of Brent Buck), the grinder rotation point is accentuated by uncharacteristically awkward bumps that create an almost lip-like effect. Other examples of this mill have no bumps around the rotation point at all, resulting in a continuous concave curvature and no embellishment.

A reader recently provided us with a great piece of info regarding production dates for this mill. This mill was a gift for their parents’ wedding in August of 1967, and they have a book’s worth of records for gifts and thank you notes to be 100% certain of that date! While this is only one data point and does not speak to the beginning or end of the production run for this design, it allows us to anchor this design to a timeline. We hope to fill in many more details with the help of our readers. 

This mill uses the frustrating tooth-fill mechanism for loading salt and pepper. The top of this mill contains six salt holes. All mills of this design that we have observed have the all-metal Peugeot grinders.

From the collection of Brent Buck.

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This design has a more traditionally-inspired shape, reminiscent of another object that belongs to the family of tableware – a decanter or, as we’ve chosen for its moniker, a carafe. The mill’s salt plug clearly references a decorative serving container for liquids with a spherical stopper, only in JHQ’s design the sphere floats above a bowl-like neck.

The peppermill’s overall shape is similar to a bowling pin, with a flared neck at the top of the object. The lip of the neck contains fourteen holes for dispersing salt. Salt is loaded by removing the wooden plug with a sphere atop the mill and pepper is loaded via the base of the mill. The grinder rotation point sits between two small donut shapes half way down the mill.

We’ve seen this mill with the transitional Peugeot grinder, as well as later all-plastic variants. The mill’s design changes with subsequent production variants – its shapes become less expressive and more blocky.

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The Heart belongs to a group of JHQ designs with a traditional inflection. It joins the Oval Tab, Chess Queen, Rook, and a few others, drawing references to pre-modern decorative shapes with beads, rosettes, and a few other shapes with more esoteric names (cavetto? congé? scotia? all the fun party guests). The top of this mill resembles a rosette, expanding out into a large bead element (i.e. a donut or torus). The bead is further expressed by a tiny lip under its lower terminus. As the mill’s profile descends, it follows a toroidal subtraction, stepping down via another tiny lip, past corresponding chamfers to define its grinder rotation point, down to a slightly conical profile for its bottom half.

The mill’s shape above its grinder rotation point is evocative of a traditional wood finial and classic carved wood chess pieces, seemingly without focusing on any specific reference. We found this mill’s nickname on Todd Pederzani’s peppermill archive – note how the top third of the mill has a heart emoji-like profile. We have not been able to come up with a more potent reference, so Heart it is!

Salt is loaded by removing the mill’s sphere-topped salt plug. This mill has eight holes for dispersing salt, embedded in a tiny lip on the top surface of the mill. Pepper is loaded via a mill’s underside. We’ve only observed this mill in the transitional and all-plastic (Thailand) grinders. Our transitional grinder is manufactured by Goldenberg of France, a rarity for our collection. We’ve also observed transitional Peugeot grinders.

A Few More Details

We’ve struggled with the name of this design for some time. For us, this design’s most distinctive reference is that the top of the mill resembles an antique oval key. Turn the mill on its side and imagine the head of a giant key sticking out of a lock cylinder. But we don’t think “Key and Lock” is an appropriate name. Oval Tab is our best idea. We’re open to suggestions.

This mill belongs to a group of JHQ designs with a traditional inflection. It joins the Chess Queen, Heart, Rook, and a few others, drawing references to pre-modern decorative shapes with beads, rosettes, and a few other shapes with more esoteric names (cavetto? congé? cyma? all the fun party guests). From this mill’s base, its shape starts with a straight-sided, gently tapering cylinder. The mill steps in sharply, cutting a line for its grinder rotation point. The design’s top half forms the oval key shape and sits on a skirt in the form of a traditional cavetto (technically it might be a congé, since it blends in with the mill’s neck). The top half of this mill reminds us of a traditional finial – a more decorative shape that dresses up the unadorned bottom half of the design. 

The mill dispenses salt through four holes in the top rim of its oval. Salt is loaded via a standard salt plug at the apex of the design; pepper is loaded via its underside. The seemingly flat faces of the oval’s surfaces have moderately pronounced curvature, mostly noticeable when viewed from an angle.

This mill appears to have a long production run, going through most of the generations of grinders in JHQ’s designs. The production in Denmark appears little changed between generations, but once production moved, the balance of the shapes between the top and bottom halves of this design became more and more distorted. 

In 2009, Dansk restarted production on eight Quistgaard peppermills. The mills were made from acacia wood, produced with adjustable ceramic grinders, and heavily modified from Quistgaard’s original designs. The mills gained human names: Jack, Audrey, Lisbet, Henrik, Rosie, Hank, Jane, and Jasper – Oval Tab’s new pseudonym. As far as we know, JHQ did not name his peppermill designs. Our best guess is that the names were chosen to give the objects a greater sense of affability and Scandinavian character. While many online sources have tightly coupled these names to the designs, we should stress that there is absolutely no evidence that any mills prior to 2009 should be attributed with human names. 

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An elegant and relatively diminutive addition to the JHQ peppermill series, we’ve focused on this mill’s top lobe for its nickname. In this design, a well-defined top bowl is adorned by a sphere-topped salt peg, reminiscent of a refined take on the ubiquitous satellite dish shape. This mill also draws non-specific references to chess pieces, also being somewhat anthropomorphic to a figure in an antiquated hoop skirt. We invite more descriptive suggestions for this design’s nickname.

Considering the mill from the bottom, its profile sweeps inward along a moderate curve to a vertical waist. The mill’s grinder rotation point is well masked at the top of the waist by a pronounced curve that takes the mill’s profile outward to form its top bowl. Eight salt holes are set into the outer rim of the bowl. An ellipsoid subtraction defines the inner surface of the bowl, sweeping inward to a hole for loading salt. The mill’s salt plug is topped by a sphere, which complements the bowl shape when assembled. Pepper is loaded via the underside of the mill.

We’ve only observed this design in the transitional Peugeot grinder. Like a few other designs produced during the transitional grinder era, the wood surface of our specimen is a bit smoother and shinier than many of our other JHQ mills. 

This mill’s model number is in conflict with the Octagonal Mallet. Based on the evolution of Dansk’s grinders, we believe this design had a relatively short production run and postdates the Octagonal Mallet, essentially taking over the model number.

A Few More Details

One of the smaller Quistgaard designs, the Acorn appears to be a mainstay of this series of peppermills. This design was produced for an extended period of time, from the early all-wood grinder era, through the transitional grinder period, to plastic grinders made in Denmark and then Thailand. The overall shapes of the design have remained the same, despite notable changes both in scale and details of this mill. The photo of three Acorn variants in the image gallery illustrates the changes throughout the production run, with the mills arranged chronologically from left to right. 

• The earliest mill (on the left) has an all-wood base with an unmarked grinder. This mill is larger than its more contemporary counterparts, with more curvaceous lobes. The curvature of the top rim is notably complex, balancing a knife’s-edge treatment with just a touch of smoothness, imbuing a mastery of craft to the design. 
• The middle mill is from the plastic grinder era, produced in Denmark. The design has shrunk slightly. Both top and bottom lobes are flatter on their sides. The top of the mill has more distributed, eased curves.
• The smallest of the production variants hails from Thailand. The bottom lobe regains a more voluptuous curve, while the top half of the mill now has a more bowl-like shape. The top of the salt plug gains an uncharacteristic point.

The nickname for this design comes from Todd Pederzani’s JHQ catalog and is a bit of a misnomer. While we can totally see the lobes of the mill as reminiscent of two shells of acorns meeting in the middle, this design also conjures a peanut and the series of Hourglass designs. However the Acorn moniker seems to have stuck, perhaps as an allusion to the mill’s diminutive stature.

In all variants, the mill has six salt holes on the flat inner part of its top. Salt is loaded by removing the wooden salt plug. Pepper is loaded from the base of the mill, using the generationally variable mechanisms for accessing the pepper compartment. The grinder rotation point is well masked by the sharp line between the top lobe and the cylindrical middle of the mill.

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The Pear Core clearly references a fruit shape, conjuring an object from a classical still life painting and creating an amusing interplay with the “Table Seasoner” moniker used in some of the ads for JHQ’s peppermills. This mill combines two spherical shapes with a toroidal subtraction, resulting in the eaten-pear shape. The lower sphere is stretched along the vertical axis and is substantially larger than the top sphere.

The top of the mill has a typical JHQ plug for loading salt, surrounded by seven holes for dispersing salt. Pepper is loaded from the base of the mill. The grinder is operated by a rotation point at the thinnest part of the middle of the mill. The part of the mill below the grinder rotation point is created from two vertically joined teak halves, perhaps due to the fact that the design requires a larger diameter chunk of teak than many other JHQ designs.

We have observed this mill exclusively in the transitional Peugeot grinder. This mill is a rare design, so we have not had the opportunity to see many of these items in the resale market.

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The Apple Core’s design brings a lot of drama to a fairly simple profile. The mill’s stocky base tapers to one of the thinnest necks in the JHQ peppermill range. We’ve named this mill for its toroidal subtraction – the design’s most prominent feature – although we realize that only describes a part of the overall shape.

From its base, the mill’s profile ascends as a cone with slightly concave sides. The cone is carved away by a drastic indent in the shape of an ellipse. The elliptical subtraction creates acute angles at the top and bottom of its intersection with the outer edges of the mill, with more than half the ellipse used to make the cut. We believe this must have presented a bit of a technical challenge to the manufacturing of the mill, probably requiring some sort of compound lathing technique (i.e. this profile cannot be cut with a rectilinear template lathe). Above the elliptic subtraction, the mill’s cap expands outward as it rises via another slightly concave curve. Its top surface is yet another curve, convex in this case.

The Apple Core does not disperse salt. Mark Perlson’s book Danish Pepper shows a rare version of the Apple Core made from staved wood that has a salt compartment at its apex, but that variant appears to be incredibly rare and we’ve never seen it in the resale market. The mill’s grinder rotation point is the midpoint of its elliptical carveout – the thinnest section of the design. Pepper is loaded via the underside of the mill.

We believe the Apple Core is one of the earliest JHQ peppermills. We’ve mostly observed this mill in the banded Peugeot grinder, which we believe to be the earliest grinder variant of this series. The underside of the mills with the banded Peugeot grinders is stamped with the word “DANMARK” on its outer rim, which is spelled that specific way in only the earliest mills. The Apple core appears in Dansk catalogs from the early-to-mid 1960s. More recently, an Apple Core mill with an all-wood, “unbanded” Peugeot grinder appeared on an auction site, with the “DANMARK” stamped into the inner wood, which would indicate a slightly later production run. 

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This mill is a bit of an outlier from the rest of the JHQ peppermill series with its design vocabulary. This mill can be described as the union of a collection of flat disks. Apart from some easing at the edges, this mill has no curves in its profile. A completely rectilinear profile puts this mill in rarefied company, with perhaps just the Tallest Bowtie and the Cylinder and Cube, depending on how you want to discern rectilinearity. Further considering the number of straight, perpendicular jogs in close succession further distinguishes this design from the rest of the series. Even the salt plug atop the mill has purged its curves, replacing a gently spherical, eased apex with a completely flat top. Once you’ve gotten used to how all the other salt plugs look, a salt plug with a sharp line around its top surface is fairly jarring. The top half of this mill, above the grinder rotation point, is a perfectly symmetrical bobbin (i.e. a spool, for the non-sewers out there). May this mill be known as the Bobbin.

This is one of the most diminutive peppermills in the JHQ series. While the Double Barrel is just a bit shorter, Flat Rings appears to be the smallest by volume. Nevertheless, it does disperse both salt and pepper. There are seven salt holes around the flat-topped salt plug; removing the salt plug allows loading salt through the top of the mill. Pepper is loaded through the underside of the mill. The grinder rotation point is between the second and third rings, counting from the bottom. This is a rare design and we’ve only observed it with the transitional grinders, both in Peugeot and even more uncommon Goldenberg varieties.

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Perhaps a “double barrel” evokes a different reference for most people, but this moniker is the most apt description of the shapes of this peppermill design. Two distinctly barrel-like blocks stack atop one another, although these barrels are squatter than the typical vessel for alcohol. Both barrels sit above cylindrical pedestals – the only difference between them is the top pedestal is about half as tall as its downstairs neighbor. The grinder rotation point is just above the bottom barrel. All four pegs are removable. The top two are for loading salt, the bottom two for loading pepper. There are six salt holes on the top surface of the mill.

Almost all the specimens of this mill available in the resale market are made of staved wood and have all-metal Peugeot grinders. We’ve seen just a few items where both halves of the mill are made from single blocks of teak. All of the single-block versions seem to have all-plastic grinders. For some reason, it seems, more recent production was able to source larger diameter teak. A similar modification happened between grinder generations of the Short Mushroom.

Besides the change from staved teak to single-block, the all-plastic grinder generation of this mill has salt holes that are set more closely to the middle of the mill, significantly altering the visual rhythm of the top surface of the design. Newer mills have more pronounced easing at the outer edges of the barrels, which is typical of details of more recently produced peppermills in this series.

The all-plastic variant has another quirk: every all-plastic grinder has a spinning ring pepper-loading mechanism. But the Double Barrel mill loads pepper via loading pegs. In our all-plastic grinder Double Barrel, the pepper loading ring has been fixed in place and does not spin. The grinder is otherwise identical to all other all-plastic grinders, including a hole in the outer ring for loading pepper. This odd detail caused us quite a bit of confusion, at least until we remembered why Double Barrel has so many pegs.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art acquired this design in 2003 and is one of the few examples we could find of an American museum collection holding a JHQ peppermill. The museum’s website states this mill was designed in 1972, which we do not believe to be the case, as this mill prominently appears in the 1964 Rare Woods ad.

In 2009, Dansk restarted production on eight Quistgaard peppermills. The mills were made from acacia wood, produced with adjustable ceramic grinders, and heavily modified from Quistgaard’s original designs. The mills gained human names: Jack, Audrey, Jasper, Lisbet, Henrik, Hank, Jane, and Rosie – Double Barrel’s new pseudonym. As far as we know, JHQ did not name his peppermill designs. Our best guess is that the names were chosen to give the objects a greater sense of affability and Scandinavian character. While many online sources have tightly coupled these names to the designs, we should stress that there is absolutely no evidence that any mills prior to 2009 should be attributed with human names. 

A Few More Details

The Moai is another Rare Woods monolith, this time named by Todd Pederzani in his peppermill archive for the human figure statues of Easter Island. We admit this mill is somewhat reminiscent of the heads of those statues, but the reference is a bit of a stretch. Due to a lack of better direct references, we’ve kept the name for our collection. We welcome other suggestions.

This mill has an extremely simple profile – a truncated cone, bisected in the middle by the grinder rotation point. The top of the mill steps inward and is carved away to create a shallow bowl shape, which is completely covered by the mill’s wide salt cap. The outer rim of the top surface contains seven holes for dispersing salt. The middle of the bowl atop the mill has a central hole for loading salt. 

This mill’s most unusual element is the salt plug. Underneath the oversized, bulbous pancake, the salt plug is actually a wooden screw. This mill uses the only all-wood screw and threading detail in JHQ’s peppermill series (in addition to the Tallest Bowtie).

A variant of this mill exists in teak. We have not had the chance to fully examine the teak version, but from the photographs we’ve seen, the teak mill’s salt plug is in the shape of a vertical fin. The body of the teak mill appears to be exactly the same as the Rare Woods version.

Pepper is loaded via the underside of the mill. We’ve only observed this rare design in the all-metal Peugeot grinder. Drawing on Todd Pederzani’s archive and a similarity to other Rare Woods mills that have their wood species verified by catalogs, we believe this mill is made from Wenge.

 

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The UFO is one of the most iconic and ubiquitous JHQ designs. Its long production life – from the earliest all-metal, banded grinders, through every generation of grinder we can identify, all the way to more modern metal-and-plastic grinders produced in Thailand – is a testament to its status as a signature Quistgaard peppermill. Notwithstanding the myriad of changes of this mill’s details, which we describe below, the overarching UFO shape consists of a wide base that tapers to a thin neck via an S-curve. A sharp line divides the neck from the disk-like top. The mill’s grinder rotation point is always at the connection between the neck and the top and is mostly hidden from view. Most of the mills have seven holes for dispersing salt, with a few of the most recent specimens only having six.

We selected the UFO as the case study best exemplifying the evolution of Quistgaard’s designs. Here we repeat the content from our Variants page.

In the photographs of the group of UFOs, we can trace the chronological evolution of this design, from earlier mills on the left to the more recent on the right.

1. Starting at the left, we have a Rare Woods example, most likely made from Palisander. One of the substantial changes of the UFO designs over its production run is the method for loading salt. Filling this iteration with salt requires unscrewing a flathead screw at the top of the mill (an uncommon design element in this series) and pouring salt through the resulting opening. The saucer shape is also different from the rest of the series – note the sharp line at its outer perimeter. 

Note: this UFO variation was most likely produced after the mill labeled (2). Our research was incomplete when we created this photograph. 

2. The second mill from the left is another Rare Woods UFO specimen, made from Mutenye. Its saucer has been smoothed at the outer edge, most likely a manufacturing requirement to mask the fact that the saucer is made up of two pieces of wood, with a horizontal butt joint at the outer perimeter of the saucer shape. The top of the saucer is smooth – no screws or plugs, apart from seven salt holes. This mill uses the fragile tooth-fill mechanism (see above). The flared out neck around the tooth-fill connection is most likely a practical consideration, taking into account that separating the two parts of this mill requires quite a bit of finessed twisting and pulling.

Note: this UFO variation was most likely produced before the mill labeled (1). Our research was incomplete when we created this photograph.

3. The middle mill is the iteration that became perhaps the most iconic design of this series of peppermills. Made from teak, this mill adds a pronounced top plug for filling salt and a plastic plug at the base of the mill for filling pepper. Overall, the shapes of this mill offer the most refined mix of exacting curvature and balanced hand-feel. The example shown has a Peugeot grinder and an all-wood base. A visually identical version of this mill exists with a Transitional Peugeot grinder, not shown.

4. The two rightmost mills are more recent productions, manufactured in Malaysia and Thailand. We can see that the shapes are no longer following JHQ’s earlier Mid-Century Modern design balance. In the fourth mill from the left, the carefully calibrated curves have become more blocky, with a wider neck relative to the base of the shape and the saucer taking on more of a pancake shape.

5. The mill on the right appears to have a droopy saucer with a more bulbous cap, becoming more reminiscent of a mushroom than an otherworldly explorer. 

 

A Few More Details

The story of our research into what we call the Vanguard has taken a number of twists. This design is a mainstay of the JHQ series of peppermills, seen frequently on the resale market, appearing in many Dansk ads, and exemplifying the design language common to most of JHQ’s oeuvre. We’ve seen a couple of sources credit this mill as the first Quistgaard peppermill, although we have only circumstantial evidence to support that claim.

In the myriad of examples of this design we’ve seen, two distinct variants are easily identified. Some of the mills are more bulbous and rounded, while others are much more rectilinear and totemic. That comes as no surprise, as many of JHQ’s peppermills evolved throughout their production runs (see the UFO and the Acorn). We always assumed that the design iterations were sequential and followed changes in manufacturing locations, tooling, grinder mechanisms, etc. A fellow collector pointed out a fascinating bit of information. Both versions of this mill are listed in one Dansk catalog from 1959. Quite literally, the older, more bulbous variant is called “825A, Salt & Pepper Shaker, old”; the newer, more rectilinear version is “825B, Salt & Pepper Shaker, new.” What would cause Dansk to produce both versions simultaneously?

To add to the complexity of the story of the Vanguard design, there are also examples in woods other than teak. In the image gallery, we’ve added numbers to the various examples to aid in our descriptions.

Mills numbered 1 and 2 are model 825A. Its profile has an evenly convex curve for the entire height of the mill. This mill’s waist steps inwards just about one-third of the mill’s height from its base, with the grinder rotation point at the bottom of the waist. The rotation point is well masked due to the design’s top section fully slotting into the bottom. The top surface of the mill has nine salt holes total: eight in a ring around one in the center, all the same size. Mill 1 is made from teak. Mill 2 is most likely made from Pao Rosa (although possibly Cocobolo). We aren’t experts in identifying wood species, but Mill 2’s glossy surface, deep red color and slightly more fluid grain make us certain this is not teak. We’ve also noted that Mill 1’s curves are even more bulbous than Mill 2’s, although both are quite similar.

Mills numbered 3 and 4 are model 825B. This variant’s outer curvature becomes much more rectilinear. The grinder rotation point moves to the top of the mill’s waist, with the rotation line clearly visible because the joint is formed by a simple abuttal of two pieces of wood. As visible in the photos, this variant has seven salt holes all in one circle. Mill 3 made from Palisander (from the collection of Brent Buck) and may be a prototype. Mill 4 is teak. 

Stig Guldberg recently made us aware of another fascinating wrinkle to this design. An extremely rare version of this mill exists in Palisander, similar in profile to the 825B design, but about two-thirds the size of its bigger siblings. Perhaps due to the challenge of working with smaller-scale objects, its grinder rotation point moves from the corners of the shape’s profile to the center of the mill’s flat waist. 

As this design was further modernized in subsequent production, the mill became even more straight-sided and blocky. Its top surface further reduced the number of salt holes to six.

All varieties of this mill load salt and pepper via the two pairs of side plugs. We’ve observed this mill in an impressive variety of all-metal grinders: Peugeot with and without a band, Tre Spade, and an unmarked grinder that has a lot of similarity to the Tre Spade version. The existence of this mill in the all-metal Peugeot grinder with a bridge, as well as a finicky manufacturer stamp reading “Danmark” pressed directly into the outer rim of the base of that variant, suggests this mill is indeed one of the earliest JHQ designs. 

The name Vanguard is taken from Todd Pederzani’s earlier peppermill archive. Needless to say, the name implies this mill is the first of the series. We’ve struggled to come up with a clearer reference for this design and we welcome new suggestions. 

 

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One of the first things we noted when first seeing the Rare Woods Totem in person is that the shape of this design belies its scale. Perhaps due to its use of an expensive wood, its visual reference to an imposing object, or a combination of the two, this mill is unexpectedly small. Its design has another surprise: the wings of the totemic shaft are not removable. They do provide great leverage in turning this otherwise exceedingly smooth-surfaced peppermill.

Considering the mill from its bottom, the design starts out with a square (only a handful of JHQ designs have non-turned profiles). The tetrahedral base is then blended into a cylinder, leading to scalloped edges along the intersections. Two thirds up the mill, the grinder rotation point creates a minuscule chamfered inset. Soon above this band, a rectangular cross shape intersects the cylindrical shaft, the combination being reminiscent of a Native American winged totem pole. The surface of the mill is slightly convex, contains seven salt holes, and forms a sharp ridge with the shaft of the cylinder.

So if the wings of the totem aren’t removable and there is no salt plug, how do we load the mill? This mill utilizes the frustrating tooth-fill mechanism. We were a bit frightened by the prospect of fiddling with such a rare item, but it turned out that the tooth fill in our specimen was sufficiently loosened due to tooth loss. We don’t know if the tooth-fill mechanism ever worked well, but we’ve found it to be a deeply frustrating design feature.

We’ve only observed this mill with the all-metal Peugeot grinder. This mill is manufactured from Palisander – the wood species is verified by the square “493 Items” Dansk advertising booklet from the 1960s.

This design’s model number conflicts with the Cylinder and Cube. The Rare Woods Totem was created as part of the Rare Woods series in the early 1960s and the Cylinder and Cube was created about a decade later. We believe the model number was simply reused. 

Just recently, we ran across a photograph of this design in what appears to be teak. Any additional information about this point would be welcomed.

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The Double Pear’s design is a striking monolith. Perhaps is a duo-lith, given the mill’s tiered design. But that’s not a word. Regardless, this mill has no pegs, no caps, no plugs. There is just one salt hole at the very apex of the mill, so we hope you like your food bland.

Despite the lack of accessories, we think this mill is perhaps JHQ’s most biophilic. The doubled shape evokes pears (hence our nickname), teardrops, honeysuckle flowers, with the entire profile even reminiscent of a christmas tree. The organic, sweeping curves make for a lovely silhouette.

This mill utilizes the tooth-fill mechanism, opening in between the two pear shapes. We’ve repeatedly stated that we find the tooth-fill design to be a frustrating design detail. Our specimen of the Double Pair finds most of the connecting teeth broken.

We believe this mill is made from Wenge wood, drawing this information from Todd Pederzani’s archive. We would love to have independent confirmation of the wood used. We have only observed this mill in the all-metal Peugeot grinder. This is one of the rarest JHQ designs.

This mill has a model number conflict with the Chess King. 

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The Moai is another Rare Woods monolith, this time named by Todd Pederzani in his peppermill archive for the human figure statues of Easter Island. We admit this mill is somewhat reminiscent of the heads of those statues, but the reference is a bit of a stretch. Due to a lack of better direct references, we’ve kept the name for our collection. We welcome other suggestions.

This mill has an extremely simple profile – a truncated cone, bisected in the middle by the grinder rotation point. The top of the mill steps inward and is carved away to create a shallow bowl shape, which is completely covered by the mill’s wide salt cap. The outer rim of the top surface contains seven holes for dispersing salt. The middle of the bowl atop the mill has a central hole for loading salt. 

This mill’s most unusual element is the salt plug. Underneath the oversized, bulbous pancake, the salt plug is actually a wooden screw. This mill uses the only all-wood screw and threading detail in JHQ’s peppermill series (in addition to the Tallest Bowtie).

A variant of this mill exists in teak. We have not had the chance to fully examine the teak version, but from the photographs we’ve seen, the teak mill’s salt plug is in the shape of a vertical fin. The body of the teak mill appears to be exactly the same as the Rare Woods version.

Pepper is loaded via the underside of the mill. We’ve only observed this rare design in the all-metal Peugeot grinder. Drawing on Todd Pederzani’s archive and a similarity to other Rare Woods mills that have their wood species verified by catalogs, we believe this mill is made from Wenge.

 

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The Cone Twins are another restrained rare woods design, this time in two identical parts. Made up from almost imperceptibly concave-sided cones, these mills do have one unusual embellishment. Both the salt and pepper siblings have an inlay of wood with grain perpendicular to the rest of the mill’s body. The inlays are shaped as two overlapping circles (think Venn diagram), perhaps symbolizing the paired nature of this design.

The twinning touch is carried through to the grinder rotation point detail – a chamfered inset in the pepper grinder that is repeated in the same location in the salt shaker. Unsurprisingly, the salt shaker does not spin around that line, but the detail is visually quite convincing. The salt shaker gives itself away by the presence of six salt holes on the top surface of the mill. Both the salt and pepper siblings are loaded via their undersides.

We’ve only observed this peppermill with the all-metal Peugeot grinder. We believe these mills are made of Wenge, given their similarity to other mills we believe are the same wood. Since we’re not experts in identifying wood species, we are looking for independent verification. These mills are rare items, more often popping up in the resale market as individual pieces rather than sets.

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The Rare Woods Screwdriver Twins make a bold statement by their impressive size and use of material even more expensive than teak. These mills are made from Mutenye (pronounced moo-TEN-yey), a wood that is now more often used for decorative veneers on guitars. The mills are nearly identical, with subtle differences made clear with attempts to use them. The salt shaker has five salt holes at the top of the ridge along its apex. The peppermill spins at the line below its head and is a fair bit heavier than its metal-free sibling. Both salt and pepper are loaded through the underside of their respective specimens.

These mills are larger than their Uneven Screwdriver Pair cousins, but otherwise very similar in shape. Considering the mills from the bottom, a circular base gently tapers to a thin neck over the course of almost the entire height of the mill. The taper follows a curve to create an elegant, attenuated shape. Above the body, the head of the mill is a more complex surface. A bowl-like shape (perhaps half a stretched sphere, a.k.a hemiellipsoid, or perhaps a circular hyperboloid, who can tell, really) is cut away by two cylinders. The resulting blade atop the mill reminds us of a screwdriver head and its long, slender body reinforces the reference to the commonly used tool. Unsurprisingly, this mill is part of the Screwdriver family of shapes.

We have only observed the peppermill of this pair in the all-metal Peugeot grinder. Both mills are stamped with the word “DANMARK”, indicating a very early production in the JHQ series. We are curious if these mills were designed contemporaneously with the Uneven Screwdriver Pair, as their grinder types and stamping indicate a similar production timeline. We would also love to know if these were sold as a set or individually – they do have separate, verified model numbers.

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Does this mill exist? That’s the question we’ve been wondering for years.

Yes, this mill does exist. It was clearly featured in the Rare Woods Dansk ad from 1964 (see gallery – this mill is on the left). The Herning Museum of Contemporary Art exhibition of JHQ’s work (and its catalog) also proves this mill exists, with what seems like a possibility of a few prototype variations for this design. 

A fellow collector has shared a photograph of a variant of this mill – the mill is made from Pao Rosa a reddish, medium-toned wood species and definitely not the dark wood of the mill in the Rare Woods ad. This mill’s shape was also slightly different, with a larger base and a more pronounced nipple shape at the top of the flying saucer cap. 

The Flying Saucers are out there 🙂 We’re hoping to find one someday.

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This design is the most diminutive of the Rosewood & Silver mills. A flathead screwdriver shape made of rosewood sits atop a silver-plated cylinder, separated by two small beads (i.e. the donut rings in the middle of the mill). The grinder rotation point is the line between the silvered bottom half and the lower rosewood bead. Uniquely, pepper is loaded by removing the silver-plated screw and utilizing the resulting opening.

We are curious about how this design was meant to be used. The only way to operate the pepper grinder is to grip the silver-plated surface, which would deposit fingerprints (at the very least) onto the reactive metal finish.

None of the Rosewood & Silver mills disperse salt. All the mills in this series use Peugeot grinders set into a wooden slot in the underside of the item. In this design, the mill sits on the silver-plated surface, which wraps around the base of the mill and creates a donut-like rim.

From the collection of Brent Buck.

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This mill follows a general outline of an hourglass, albeit a relatively distorted one. Two somewhat spherical lobes are cinched by a silver band that defines this special edition of JHQ mills. Unlike the rest of the designs in the hourglass family, the curvature of the lobes of this mill is weighted to the mill’s vertical extremes, resulting in a less bulbous appearance. Todd Pederzani’s archive took this a step further by referring to this mill as a “smasher.”

The top lobe of this mill follows the production pattern of the rest of the Rosewood & Silver series and is made up of nine rosewood staves. Uniquely, four much larger staves come together to form the bottom lobe. The silver band’s profile has a notable convex shape, no doubt adding to the manufacturing challenges of this design.

Pepper is loaded by aligning the circular hole in the silver band and a corresponding opening in the wooden body underneath. None of the Rosewood & Silver mills disperse salt. All the mills in this series use Peugeot grinders set into an all-wood base.

From the collection of Brent Buck.

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The Banded Peanut is a close complement to the Acorn design. Both mills have two bulbous lobes connected by a cylindrical neck and utilize the same proportions between top and bottom lobes. The two designs are also very close in height, despite the Rosewood & Silver mill appearing to be a lot more slender. Because we’ve always thought the Acorn was a bit of a misnomer, we decided to name this mill “peanut” to draw just a bit of distinction between the two items. 

A silver-plated band bisects the bulbous lower lobe of this mill. The band has a curve in its profile, seamlessly following the outline of the containing spheroid. The top surface of the mill follows a toroidal shape but comes to a sharp point in the very center of the mill. The grinder rotation point is underneath the top lobe.

JHQ expert Stig Guldberg made us aware of another Rosewood & Silver peppermill that is quite similar to the Banded Peanut but may be just distinct enough to be a separate design. That other mill is also made up of two spherical lobes joined by a cylindrical waist but is a little bit taller. In contrast with this design, that mill’s upper lobe has a perfectly spherical top.

Pepper is loaded by aligning the circular hole in the silver band and a corresponding opening in the wooden body underneath. None of the Rosewood & Silver mills disperse salt. All the mills in this series use Peugeot grinders set into an all-wood base.

From the collection of Brent Buck.

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Perhaps to complement the all-teak Four Donuts design, JHQ’s Rosewood & Silver series has a Three Donut configuration. Equal, articulated toroidal shapes intersected by cylinders of two diameters make up this design. The silver-plated band defines the lower cylinder. The top donut of the mill is connected to the upper cylinder, forming the neck of this mill. The upper cylinder slots into the exact inner dimension of the middle donut, creating an exquisite detail. Operating the mill requires twisting its two halves around this point.

Pepper is loaded by aligning the circular hole in the silver band and a corresponding opening in the wooden body underneath. None of the Rosewood & Silver mills disperse salt. All the mills in this series use Peugeot grinders set into an all-wood base. 

From the collection of Brent Buck.

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This mill received its namesake from considering how it appears when rotated 90 degrees. The silver band and portion above look just like a doorknob and lock cylinder. We were unable to find any strong references for the lower portion of this design.

Like the rest of the Rosewood & Silver series, this mill is made up of rosewood staves. In this case, nine staves constitute its body. Of note is the fact that the bottom portion of the mill comes extremely close to the total dimensions of the staves. Having the base become a full spheroid would have required adding another ring of staves. Perhaps due to dimensional constraints, JHQ chose to create the flat oval shapes instead, which are relatively unique in this series of designs. Of all the Rosewood & Silver mills, this design is the most referential to traditional woodturning shapes, with the doorknob shape also resembling a finial, the silver band bounded by cymas, and the ovals of the base resembling traditional plaques.

Pepper is loaded by aligning the circular hole in the silver band and a corresponding opening in the wooden body underneath. None of the Rosewood & Silver mills disperse salt. All the mills in this series use Peugeot grinders set into an all-wood base.

From the collection of Brent Buck.

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Of the many Screwdriver shapes in JHQ’s oeuvre, this design is the most strict and rectilinear. A straight-sided cylinder is carved away to create a flat-sided central fin, which we consider to be the flathead screwdriver shape. However, unlike the namesake functional tool, the flathead bit has a large circular hole. This void places this design in very rare company. Only the Eyelet and the other Screwdriver with Hole (which may or may not exist) contain fully articulated holes among JHQ’s designs.

Like other Rosewood & Silver mills, nine rosewood staves make up the wooden body of this mill. It grinds pepper by spinning around a line underneath the silver band. Pepper is loaded by aligning the circular hole in the silver band and a corresponding opening in the wooden body underneath. None of the Rosewood & Silver mills disperse salt. All the mills in this series use Peugeot grinders set into an all-wood base.

From the collection of Brent Buck.

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The tallest of the Rosewood & Silver series, the Banded Mushroom projects the most direct reference to an organic object from this special collection. The design appears to be a mushroom cinched in by a silver band, creating a bit of a wooden muffin top above the strict geometry of the metal cylinder. Like the other mills in this series, the wooden body of the mill is made up of nine staves of rosewood. The wooden staves create fascinating patterns along the neck of this mill.

This mill has an unusual method of engaging the pepper grinder. The top cap of the mill is directly engaged to the inner grinding mechanism. The wooden base, underneath the silver band, is connected to the outer grinding mechanism. To operate the pepper grinder, the cap and base of the mill need to be rotated in opposite directions. Oddly, the wooden neck of the mill spins free of both parts connected to the grinder. We are unsure if this is a defect in the specimen we examined, or if perhaps this is a mysterious part of the design of this mill.

Pepper is loaded by aligning the circular hole in the silver band and a corresponding opening in the wooden body underneath. None of the Rosewood & Silver mills disperse salt. All the mills in this series use Peugeot grinders set into an all-wood base.

From the collection of Brent Buck.

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This mill is another design that gave us some pause. Should we consider it part of the JHQ core peppermill designs even though it’s not all teak? It’s not listed as part of the Rare Woods collection either, so where does it belong?

Composed of a combination of teak and bamboo, we now understand that it’s actually part of a series called “Cane and Teak” (also sometimes referred to as the “Two Wood Series”). We’ve found this mill listed alongside a small selection of items (coaster, tray, trivet, and ice bucket) made from the same combination of materials in Dansk catalogs from the early 1960s. . From those catalogs, we were able to verify this mill’s unusual model number that begins with 1500, rather than 800 and 1600 for all other peppermills that we’ve been able to find.

The mill’s base is a cylinder with a slightly convex top. Sandwiched between two bands of teak, bamboo inlays make up the vertical sides of the cylindrical base. A flathead screwdriver shape forms the top half of the mill: a smaller cylinder with two curvilinear subtractions. We’ve categorized this design into the rest of the Screwdriver family of shapes. One tiny decorative element adorns the screwdriver surface – a small round of wood with a different grain is inset into one of the cylindrical sides close to the top of the mill.

This mill does not disperse salt. Pepper is loaded via the base of the mill. The top element spins free of the base of this design along the sharp line separating the two shapes. We have only observed this mill with all-metal Peugeot grinders. Like the other very early mills with the banded grinder, this mill is stamped with the word “DANMARK” on its underside. We’ve had two of these mills in our collection over the years and we’ve observed a surprising difference in size between them – one is just about 5% larger than the other in all dimensions.

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This peppermill skirts the boundaries of our initial intent to document JHQ’s Dansk peppermill designs. It follows the pattern established by the other Dansk Quistgaard mills by combining a salt shaker with a pepper grinder. Wood species from the Dansk Rare Woods line are used. However, these mills were not manufactured for Dansk Designs and their story is a bit more complicated.

Like the Dansk Rare Woods mills, the profile of this design is extremely simple. The mill can be described as a tapered dumbbell, or a cone hemmed in by a pronounced waist. Since a spool conjures a similarly-sized industrial object, that’s our chosen reference. The ridges of this design are slightly eased for comfortable handling, but not enough to break up the rectilinear impression of its outlines.

Uniquely, the tops of these mills feature ceramic disks patterned with motifs from the Kronjyden company’s series of stoneware designed by Quistgaard. We’ve observed several pattern and wood combinations.

• One pairing brings together a sand-colored Relief pattern ceramic top with a Wenge wood body. The Relief pattern is a stylized interpretation of wheat stalks. 
• The second specimen combines a ceramic pattern called Azur, which is a teal, floral motif reminiscent of a Japanese cherry blossom, with Pao Rosa wood. 
• As per Stig Guldberg, this mill also exists in Pao Rosa with a ceramic top in the Umbra pattern, which is a brown version of the Azur pattern. This mill is not pictured.

This design uses the fragile, frustrating tooth-fill mechanism. The mill rotates around a well-masked line below its top lobe. Salt is dispersed via holes in the ceramic tops, with the number of holes varying based on the ceramic pattern. All-metal grinders are used, with both Tre Spade and Peugeot mechanisms observed. 

Understanding the manufacturer of these mills added a bit of intrigue for us. Luckily, Stig Guldberg provided some much-needed background information. Richard Nissen, a name that figures prominently in the Quistgaard/Dansk story, owned the factory where most Dansk Designs wood products were manufactured in Denmark. Nissen also owned Kronjyden ceramics. While Quistgaard created designs for both Dansk and Kronjyden, Quistgaard’s name was not used in the Kronjyden branding.

So, back to these mills. The Wenge/Relief mill is stamped with “Kronjyden Danmark”. Notably, JHQ’s initials are absent. The Pao Rosa/Azur mill is stamped with “Dansk Designs”, which appears to be a mistake. As far as we know, these mills were never marketed by Dansk and never imported to the USA. However, since it appears that the manufacturing of both Dansk and Kronjyden products was somewhat entwined, this erroneous branding is surprising but not unexplainable.

From the collection of Brent Buck.

 

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Like the Spool with Ceramic Top, these peppermills were produced as part of the Kronjyden line of products. We are confident they were designed by Jens Quistgaard, but there appears to have been a bit of contractual voodoo between Dansk Designs and Kronjyden to downplay Quistgaard’s role in Kronjyden’s products.

These mills feature Quistgaard’s Relief pattern from the extremely popular Kronjyden series of ceramics. The Relief pattern is a stylized interpretation of wheat stalks. Sixteen petals make up one ring of the ceramic pattern in this design, becoming imperceptibly smaller as the ceramic shape tapers as it rises. The ceramic conical shape of this mill appears to have mostly straight sides, but actually flares out slightly at the bottom. The mills are topped with slightly-tapered wooden cylinders made of Wenge. The top wooden surface is a cone with a gently eased apex.

These two objects make a set – one for salt, the other for pepper. The salt mill is a simple shaker, lacking a grinding mechanism and gaining six salt holes in its top surface. Salt is loaded via a plastic plug in the center of its underside.

The pepper grinder uses a Peugeot grinder mechanism, set into a unique plastic ring that makes the transition from ceramic to metal on the underside of the mill. Pepper is loaded by spinning the wooden top and lining up the single hole near the bottom of its vertical surface with a corresponding hole in the ceramic body underneath. A tiny inset wooden disk adorns the Wenge cylinder of the pepper grinder, located just above the pepper loading hole.

In our specimens, neither mill has visible manufacturer’s marks.

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This mill is a fantastically rare object. In fact, this specimen is a non-production prototype, acquired directly from Richard Nissen by a fellow collector. Using a grinder different from the rest of the Dansk mills, as well as a unique assembly method, we are thrilled to be able to showcase this design.

Made up of scalloped shapes arranged in a harlequin pattern, this mill combines a simple conical shape with an extremely complex surface treatment. There are eight scallops in each ring that grow progressively smaller as the mill rises, maintaining a sense of uniformity while imparting a sense of detailed craft.

This mill’s grinder rotation point is slightly below the center of the mill, with a complement of eased shapes to transition over the scalloped design. In this prototype, the mill has a notable gap around the rotation point and we’re not sure if this was further refined in whatever production variants were planned. By taking apart the mill, we can observe a unique connection method. A wooden cylinder extends from the top half of the mill into a corresponding slot in the bottom half, with a plastic/rubber gasket to seal the connection. Further into the assembly, two dowels slot into corresponding depressions to prevent unwanted rotation when the mill is twisted to activate the pepper grinder. Despite not being a fully-vetted production variant, we believe this assembly method is far superior to the problematic tooth-fill mechanism. Salt is dispersed through seven salt holes at the top of the mill. Pepper is ground by a Peugeot grinder unlike any others in the Dansk JHQ series of mills. 

In terms of provenance, we are confident that Quistgaard designed this object, as it was featured in the HEART Museum’s JHQ retrospective. We do not know how far into production this design was taken and welcome further information on this point.

From the collection of Brent Buck.

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This is an extremely rare prototype design. The mill’s shape is a cone made up of 14-16 flat facets. It should grind pepper and disperse salt. A fellow collector shared a photograph with us, but we have not had the chance to fully examine it at this time.

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This is an extremely rare prototype design. The mill’s profile is made up of two pulley shapes, the upper one smaller than the lower, connected by a truncated cone. The overall effect is reminiscent of a toy Christmas tree. It should grind pepper and disperse salt. A fellow collector shared a photograph with us, but we have not had the chance to fully examine it at this time.

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This is an extremely rare prototype design. Like its shorter cousin, this mill’s profile is made up of two pulley shapes. The upper pulley is taller and more dramatically cinched than the lower, but the outer diameters of the pulleys are similar. The pulleys are connected by a cylindrical shape that is rounded at the top, with the overall impression recalling more traditional turned-wood profiles. This mill should grind pepper and disperse salt. A fellow collector shared a photograph with us, but we have not had the chance to fully examine it at this time.

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This is an extremely rare prototype design. This mill is very tall, just over 12 inches (31 cm) by our estimates. It has an extremely slender profile that shares quite a bit with some of JHQ’s curvilinear candlestick designs. The mill’s body is made up of four vertical staves, creating an elegant, symmetrical, cross-shaped joint running the length of the mill. This mill only grinds pepper, there is no salt compartment. A fellow collector shared a photograph with us, but we have not had the chance to fully examine it at this time. 

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Of all the mills we are missing from our collection, this design is perhaps the most mysterious. We’ve never seen it in any private collection, or museum show, or catalog, or ad. Todd Pederzani’s archive had one photograph of this mill. Judging from its design language, we believe we can be moderately confident it is a JHQ design. But without seeing the mill’s base or having any other supporting information, there is a possibility it doesn’t belong to this series of mills.

We’ve assigned this design to the Screwdriver family. From our observation, the shape of this mill is particularly similar to a flathead screwdriver bit.

A somewhat similar design exists in rosewood and silver-plated band. However, the curvature of the outlines of these designs does differ.

We are hopeful to receive more information about this design.

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