Jens Quistgaard "Bamboo Screwdriver" Pepper Mill
A rare model number 1525 pepper, nicknamed the “Bamboo Screwdriver”, designed by Jens Quistgaard for Dansk Designs before or in 1961. [1]
This is the only design from Quistgaard’s oeuvre of around 60 mills that incorporates two woods. The design was part of a series called ‘Cane and Teak’ that featured a coaster, tray, trivet, and ice bucket made from the same combination of materials, bamboo and teak.
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. On account of the bamboo’s grain also running vertically the eye reads the sides as one uninterrupted surface. The top half of the mill which turns to power the grinder is teak carved into a shape reminiscent of a flathead screwdriver. A small round of wood with a different grain is inset into one side of the turning knop. Presumedly, this dowl and the pin on the opposite side fix the knop to the spindle of the first edition grinder.
quistgaardpepper.com, the authority on Quistgaard’s mills state that they’ve only observed the “Bamboo Screwdriver” with all-metal Peugeot grinders.
This suggests the design had a short production run and was only ever produced in the 1960s. Like the other very early mills with the banded grinder, this mill is stamped with the word “DANMARK” on its underside.
[1] We know that this design was executed and offered for sale in or before 1961, as it can be seen in a photograph of Dansk's exhibition at Harrods, London, which opened towards the end of 1961.
Model Nickname: "Bamboo Screwdriver"
Model Number: 1525
Designer: Jens Harald Quistgaard
Manufacturer: Dansk Designs
Year of Design: Early-1960's
Dates Produced: Early-1960's only
Colour: Brown
Height: 12 cm, Diameter: 8.5 cm
Condition: Good. Please note small (superficial) crack in the wood where holding pin enters. See photographs.
Branding: Underside stamped with earliest spelling of country of manufacture, ‘Danmark’.