Jens Quistgaard Pair of "Screwdriver" Mills
A pair of very tall and elegantly slender mills with a knop reminiscent of a flathead screwdriver, designed by Jens Quistgaard for Dansk.
Like all the Dansk designs offered on our website, these solid teak mills were produced in Denmark.
The none matching “Screwdriver” pair are an early design in Quistgaard's eminently collectable series of salt & pepper mills, dating from the late-1950's, and these examples are also early production pieces. The pepper mill features the all-metal Peugeot grinder and is stamped 'DANMARK' to the underside, the saltshaker is also stamped with the Danish spelling of the country of manufacture. All but the earliest of mills are marked 'Denmark'.
The tapering form of these mills is fantastically sculptural, but they are also highly functional objects, thanks to their ergonomics and quality of manufacture. Satisfying both these criteria was crucial for Quistgaard. In Stig Guldberg's 2010 documentary on Quistgaard the latter proclaims: "The finished product must display harmony but its usefulness must not be affected just for the sake of making it pretty. Practical use and beauty of design must go hand in hand."
Model Nickname: "Screwdriver Uneven Pair"
Designer: Jens Harald Quistgaard
Manufacturer: Dansk Designs
Year of Design: Late-1950's
Dates Produced: Late-1950's, the all metal grinding mechanism and ‘DANMARK’ stamp make these examples early production pieces.
Colour: Brown
Pepper: Height: 30.5 cm, Diameter: 7 cm. Salt: H: 25.5 cm, Ø 6 cm.
Condition: Very good. Some age related scratches. Faint minor/stable crack to side of pepper mill. See photographs.
Branding: Underside of each stamped ‘DANMARK’.