Everyone Had It In The '60s — Now It's The Rare Pepper Mill We Want In Our Homes

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Imagine someone asked you to come up with as many designs as possible for a wooden pepper mill. Could you come up with 50 or more? In the 1960s, Danish sculptor and designer Jens Quistgaard  began to do just that for Dansk Designs, creating pepper mills that could easily pass as mini wood sculptures and be right at home in a contemporary art museum. Some aren't even recognizable as pepper mills.

Founded in 1954 in New York, Dansk Designs produced Danish modern goods, and the company's kitchen products were mainstays in many homes  in the decades that followed. Today, some 50 years later, count Dansk products among the nostalgic kitchen décor from the '60s and '70s people want in their homes, with the Dansk pepper mills among the most popular in terms of collectibility.

Although some pepper mills were made from other rare woods for special collections, Quistgaard primarily used high-grade teak (which, by the way, is the kind of vintage wooden kitchenware you should always buy at the thrift store). The Dansk pepper mills primarily featured Peugeot metal grinders,  though some designs used grinders by Tre Spade.

Collecting Dansk pepper mills begins with a three- or four-digit number. Each pepper mill by Jens Quistgaard had a number, such as 895, 824, or 1611, and web resources like The Peppermills of Jens Quistgaard provide a legend to each, with a number paired with a photo. There's also a 2008 book by Mark Perlson about Jens Quistgaard and his famous pepper mill designs called "Danish Pepper." (In it, you'll find 50 photos of Quitsgaard's salt and pepper mills and shakers, along with 17 illustrations.)

No names were given to the pepper mills, but nicknames have been assigned throughout the years. For example, model number 824 is called "Double Barrel" by The Peppermills of Jens Quistgaard, while the design enthusiasts at Art & Utility refer to it as both "Double Barrel" and "Drum."

One common tip on how to spot valuable, high-end items at thrift stores is to look for the maker's mark, and in the case of the Dansk pepper mills, that means looking at the bottom of the pepper mill for "DANSK DESIGNS" burned into the wood. Second-generation pepper mills changed this to "Dansk Designs LTD", and it became a stamp instead, as an outer plastic ring was added to the grinders. Newer models, meanwhile, come with a "Dansk International Designs" decal on the side.

Also, when searching, don't be surprised if you find Quistgaard-designed pepper mills outside the kitchenware section either since some store personnel may not recognize them as pepper mills, and more as pieces of art. Some may also show the "JHQ" initials of Jens Harald Quistgaard.