Teak Designs

The majority of Jens Quistgaard’s peppermill designs were produced in teak. We’ve found over forty unique shapes that were put into production. To aid identifying and discussing each design, we’ve assigned nicknames to each peppermill, then further grouped them based on similarities in shape. In JHQ’s oeuvre, the peppermills did not have individual names, but were assigned model numbers as they were put into production, which we’ve done our best to verify via primary materials. 

Rare Woods

Dansk Designs - 1964 Advertisement - Rare Woods, Meet Wenge
Photograph from the Dansk Designs 1964 "Meet Wenge" advertisement.
Dansk Designs - Recreation of Meet Wenge Advertisement
A recreation with the mills in our collection, 2020.

Starting in 1961 or ‘62, Dansk began producing a line of products made from “rare woods”. Whereas Dansk’s mainstay wood type was teak (itself somewhat rare, but very popular for mid-century Danish design), Rare Woods products employed wenge, cocobolo, palisander (more commonly known as rosewood), mutenye, and pao rosa.

In 1964, Dansk Designs released an advertisement announcing a special edition of peppermills as part of the Rare Woods collection. The image used in the ad introduces some confusion for identifying and categorizing JHQ’s peppermills - some of the designs shown were unique to the Rare Woods series, while other designs have also been produced in teak. To further complicate matters, the text of the Rare Woods ad also describes teak as a rare wood, opening the door to the possibility that some of the mills in the ad are indeed made from teak. From the designs featured in the Rare Woods ad, we've only seen the Druuge and the Double Barrel peppermills made from teak.

The image shown above left is from the 1964 Dansk Designs ad. The above right image is our recreation of the ad featuring the rare woods mills we have access to.

Rosewood & Silver

The Rosewood and Silver JHQ Designs

A second special edition of Quistgaard’s peppermills went even more exotic. This series of designs used staved rosewood adorned with silver-plated bands. Perhaps due to the expensive materials, these mills are diminutive by comparison to their teak relatives. We’ve seen 1972 as a possible date for the release of this series, but haven’t been able to verify it from primary materials. The relatively robust and dense rosewood tends to stand up to aging and handling, but the condition of the more temperamental silver surfaces varies a great deal with each specimen. Glossy, shiny, and highly decorative, the designs in this special edition have kept their revered position in the JHQ oeuvre by continuing to be some of the most expensive peppermills in the resale market. 

Miscellanea & Prototypes

The following mills don’t fit neatly into the previous categories. Some were not produced for Dansk, or are of a different series, or are prototypes that, to the best of our knowledge, were never put into production. We assume there may be a number of other JHQ-designed peppermills that fall into this category, but because they are the hardest to verify, we’re including only the examples we’ve been able to confirm so far. We would love to find other pieces, dear readers, so tell us about your rarest and most exotic!

The Designer: Jens Quistgaard

MDL-AS Portrait
Jens Quistgaard in his home. (CGDA)

Jens Harald Quistgaard (April 23, 1919 - January 4, 2008) was the principal designer for Dansk Designs from the mid-1950s through the 1980s. Quistgaard’s designs are largely responsible for introducing and defining the Scandinavian modern aesthetic for American homes. As the New York Times recognized in 1958, “Some of the most popular accessories found in American homes today have their beginnings in a small studio-workshop adjoining the modest residence of Jens Quistgaard in Copenhagen.” Quistgaard, by way of Dansk Designs, went on to transform and modernize the American dining table and kitchen.

Initially trained as a sculptor by his father, Quistgaard expanded his skills by learning from carpenters and metalsmiths, all contributing to his versatility as a master craftsman with the expertise to combine materials and techniques in novel ways. Amongst his most recognized designs is the 1953 Fjord Flatware set, iconic for combining stainless steel with teak handles. Fjord Flatware is in the collections of several prominent museums and is still in production. Many more of Quistgaard’s houseware designs, notably the teak ice buckets and colorful Kobenstyle enamelware, have become familiar classics. Over the course of his multi-decade career, Quistgaard created designs for over four thousand products.

Despite living and working in Denmark for the majority of his career, Quistgaard’s designs for Dansk focused on the consumer market in the United States. For many decades, Quistgaard remained relatively unrecognized in his home country, rarely mentioned alongside other Danish design icons such as Hans Wegner and Finn Juhl. As many Scandinavian Modern items moved from the primary consumer market to the province of collectors, Quistgaard’s oeuvre gained further international recognition. In 2015, the Herning Museum of Contemporary Art in Copenhagen mounted a career-spanning retrospective of Quistgaard’s work, with additional Danish publications expected in the near future.

Details and Variants

The peppermills of this series were produced for an extended amount of time, going through a series of changes. This complicates the overall picture and sense of completeness of this set of designs. We've highlighted a few aspects of this evolution.

Grinder Types

As with most of the details of this series of Dansk JHQ peppermills, the grinder mechanisms evolved over time. Notwithstanding a continuum of changes, we think of grinders as having four distinct stages.

All-Metal Grinders

The earliest mills have all-metal circular grinders set into an all-wood base. All of this generation's mills were produced in Denmark and have a few subtle variations to be aware of.

JHQ Grinder - Peugeot with Band

Peugeot grinders were used most extensively, with some of the very early designs using a retaining band over the grinder mechanism to secure the grinder housing to the wooden surface and prevent unwanted rotation. The script on the grinder itself says "Peugeot Freres LION" and shows an illustration of a lion. The grinder shown belongs to an Apple Core model. 

JHQ Grinder - Peugeot

The second iteration of Peugeot grinders slot into oval openings and do not require a retaining band. The script also says "Peugeot Freres LION". This grinder is from the Octagonal Mallet peppermill.

JHQ Grinder - Tre Spade

A few mill designs alternate between a couple of grinder brands, with some mills using Tre Spade grinders. The text on the grinder says "Tre Spade" "Made in Italy." The grinder shown is of the more recent models of the Vanguard mill. Early Vanguard mills exist with banded Peugeot grinders, as well as later designs with unbanded Peugeot grinders.

JHQ Grinder - Peugeot Unlabeled

Some grinders of this generation are not labeled, but given the physical similarity of the grinder design, we believe these grinders were manufactured by Tre Spade. This is the grinder of an Oval Tab model

JHQ Grinder - Pepper Loading from Base

For the designs that are filled with pepper from the base of the mill, there is a rubber plug to cover the loading hole.

Transitional Grinders

The second generation of grinders also use metal grinders but add overlapping plastic rings around the central grinder mechanism. We refer to this grinder design as Transitional, as it appears to be a hybrid of the earlier all-metal design and the subsequent all-plastic grinder. All of this generation's mills were produced in Denmark.

JHQ Transitional Grinder - Animation

The outer plastic ring rotates to reveal a corresponding hole in the inner plastic ring, through which these mills receive pepper. This modification was most likely easier to produce. This grinder belongs to the Bullet peppermill.

JHQ Grinder - Goldenberg

Some designs of this generation used a Goldenberg Grinder. So far, we have only observed two mills with Goldenberg Transitional grinders - Heart and Bobbin.

Plastic Grinders

The subsequent iteration of grinders are all-plastic designs. Earlier specimens of mills with plastic grinders were produced in Denmark, with later-produced items specifying Thailand as the country of manufacture.

JHQ Grinder - Plastic

There are no brand markings visible on the grinders themselves, suggesting that either Dansk brought production in-house or negotiated an agreement with a less prominent manufacturer. Plastic grinders are all-black and use spinning ring fill.

Subsequent Grinder Types

The most recent generations of peppermills, some of which are still produced today, use a few additional variants of grinders, either all plastic, or metal and plastic, or adjustable ceramic. They are produced in Thailand, Malaysia, and China and are a bit outside the scope of our focus.

The Tooth Fill - A Clever, Frustrating Design Detail

Most of the JHQ peppermills take pride in their salt and pepper loading methods. Quistgaard crafted a myriad of caps, plugs, and knobs to access the salt and pepper compartments in his designs. These details are integral to the overall compositions of his table seasoners. But a few mills are a bit more mysterious - at first glance, there are no obvious ways to load them with spices. These designs utilize the fragile, elegant, frustrating tooth-fill mechanism.

JHQ Design - The Tooth-filled Peppermill
Tooth-fill mechanism in an Octagonal Mallet mill.

The tooth-fill mechanism is hidden when the mill is closed. By pulling apart the top and bottom of these mills at the grinder rotation point, a circle of plastic teeth in the bottom half of the mill expands outwards and releases a corresponding ring on the top half of the mechanism. This opens the mill and reveals two compartments for salt and pepper. Like in all other mills, the salt is always on top and pepper is always at the bottom. To prevent the spices from mixing, the salt compartment has a removable plastic plug.

Despite the slyness of this design, the problems are fairly obvious. If the coupling is too tight, the mill is impossible to open. If it’s too loose, the mill won’t stay together. All the examples we’ve encountered err on the side of being coupled too tightly, with the unfortunate side effect being that the teeth break from excessive force. Most of the tooth-filled mills we own have at least one of the teeth missing. We are very lucky that the Octagonal Mallet mill in our collection works as designed. 

Due to its fragility, we believe this mechanism was not successful and was only employed in a handful of early peppermill designs. Some of the tooth-filled mills were redesigned to use more standard spice-loading methods, like the Short Hourglass. The designs that utilize the tooth-fill mechanism are: one generation of the UFO, Octagonal Mallet, earlier Short Hourglass variants, Ribbed Mushroom, PlungerRare Woods Double Pear, Rare Woods Totem, Spool with Ceramic Top.

Shape Modifications - The Many Versions of the UFO

Of the around fifty JHQ peppermill designs, a few stand out as interesting case studies illustrating the evolution of a particular shape and changes in production techniques. We'll consider one of the most iconic JHQ designs: the UFO.

JHQ Variants - UFOs
JHQ Variants - UFOs

According to Mark Perlson's research, the UFO had one of the longest production runs of the series. The UFO design most likely originated in the Rare Woods series of peppermills and was subsequently adapted for production in teak. In the photograph above and to the left, we can trace the chronological evolution of this design, from the earlier mills on the left to the more recent on the right.

JHQ 895 - UFO Variant 1

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.

JHQ 895 - UFO Variant 2

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.

JHQ 895 - UFO Variant 3

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.

JHQ 895 - UFO Variant 4

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.

JHQ 895 - UFO Variant 5

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.

The Collectors

We first encountered a JHQ Peppermill in an antiques showroom in Copenhagen. When we asked the store clerk about it, he looked at us with a bit of surprise - “Aren’t you Americans? Jens Quistgaard is a famous Danish designer, but he mostly designed for the American market. We don’t have that much of his work in Denmark.” When we returned home, we started to peek at the world of Quistgaard. Indeed, Quistgaard, via Dansk Designs, did primarily design for the American market. JHQ’s designs were huge hits. Our family members had Dansk in their kitchens and dining rooms for decades, sometimes overlooking the origins of the items as they were the default designs of the era. Quistgaard’s enamelware, stoneware, Kobenstyle pans, teak ice buckets, flatware are ubiquitous in American homes, especially since the mid-century modern craze took hold.

But what about the peppermills? We found that many people are generally familiar with them, but detailed information is harder to come by. Now, we know we’re nerds. But we think good data is always useful. Our goal is to establish a repository of information for Jens Quistgaard’s peppermills, answer some of the establishing questions, and maybe, if we get lucky, drill into some of the nitty-gritty details. After almost a decade of our hunt for both the items and information about them, we would like to present this website as a living resource for collectors and admirers.

MDL-AS Portrait

This website was created by Maren Lankford, a fundraising professional, and Alexander Severin, an architectural photographer. Maren and Alex live in New York City with their two cats, Oscar and Dorian.

Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the wonderful individuals and organizations who helped us gather materials for this project. We are not the first collectors to attempt to create a database of JHQ peppermill designs and we were grateful to find resources that guided our collecting and research.

  • Todd Pederzani’s wiki was a critical starting point. Sadly, that website has been offline for close to a decade. Mr. Pederzani, if you come across this website, hats off for taking the lead on this process. We would love to hear from you!
  • In 2015, the Herning Museum of Contemporary Art in Herning, Denmark held a retrospective of Jens Quistgaard’s design work, curated by Stig Guldberg. The exhibition catalog, The Sculptor Who Put Danish Modern on the Map, is a valuable resource for JHQ’s biography and design practice and also offers a few unique glimpses at some very rare peppermills designs, including some that were never put into production. A special thanks to Stig, who has also generously provided much-needed background information for our content.
  • Mark Perlson’s 2008 book, Danish Pepper: Jens Quistgaards Teak Pepper Mills was another important source. We highly encourage collectors to find that book for additional information.
  • Another wonderful resource for all things JHQ is Emilie Rygaard Rasch's new book Jens Harald Quistgaard: En Dansk Designer. The book is currently only available in Danish, but we're sure the internet is full of translation wonders. Emilie, thank you for sharing your insights with us!
  • A special thanks to Sarah Froelich for sharing her research about Jens Quistgaard, Ted and Martha Nierenberg, and Dansk Designs.
  • A special thanks to Brent Buck, who generously lent us part of his peppermill collection for documentation, bringing this project much closer to completion.
  • A special thanks to Paul Thonis and Glenn Groglio, both former Creative Directors at Dansk. Thank you for chatting with us about JHQ’s designs and legacy for the American company.
  • A special thanks to Jeni Sandberg for lending her expertise on early Dansk history. Visit Jeni's website for fascinating information about other JHQ-designed, Dansk-produced products.
  • A special thanks to Signe Vithner Jensen for sharing her expertise, detailed research, and visual materials relating to the history of Kronjyden ceramics and JHQ's work for that company. To learn more about Kronjyden, follow her Instagram account.
  • Thanks to the Rochester Institute of Technology Cary Graphic Design Archives staff for working with us to digitize Dansk Designs printed material from the archive of Lou Dorfsman. Mr. Dorfsman created some of Dansk’s most iconic advertising. To the Cary Archive staff, we appreciate your attention to our project in a tumultuous year. Images marked with (CGDA) are sourced from the Cary Archives. 
  • Thanks to the staff at the Rutgers Special Collections and University Archives for working with us to digitize a small part of the Lenox archive. Thank you for your assistance while we were unable to visit the archive in person.

Help us expand this website!

We are always looking for additional information about this collection, Jens Quistgaard, and Dansk Designs. We are going to keep this fairly old-school and request that you email us with comments, suggestions, or corrections. We hope to hear from you and grow the information base for this collection.

JHQ Peppermill Profiles