Grinding through History – Antique Brass Spice Mills

These are pretty neat, aren’t they?

I picked these up at my local flea-market before it closed for Christmas. The last market of the year – almost everybody was selling stuff off cheap. One last chance to make money before three weeks of nothing. As a result, these were going cheap!

“What the hell are they??” I hear you ask.

Well, they’re antique brass spice mills! Ain’t they just the cutest lil’ things you ever saw in your life??

OK, okay…ok…let’s be a bit more serious now…

What are they, really?

Well that’s a bit of a tricky question to answer, actually.

The short answer is that according to all the research I’ve done, they are spice mills, used for grinding up things like coffee, salt, pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg and whatever else you can cram inside them. But that’s not entirely true. See, mills of this design were originally meant, not for spices, but coffee beans!

They originated with the Greek army because apparently Greek soldiers needed a lot of coffee to make it through a day’s fighting. The problem was that to get the coffee, they had to grind the beans, and grinding beans on the move was a problem, because of how chunky old-fashioned coffee-mills were. Have you seen those things? They’re huge!

To find a compact and portable alternative, some bright spark came up with these things!

Now, they do come in various sizes. All the way from well over a foot long, down to about five or six inches in height. The small mill is about 7.5in high, which makes it a medium, while the other mill is about 13in high, which makes a large! In fact, I don’t think any current manufacturers produce a mill this big!

“So what are they used for?”

As I said, originally these were coffee mills, but these days, people use them for all kinds of things. They’re very popular as spice-mills, for grinding pepper, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon…basically anything that you can cram inside it! The fineness of the grind is adjusted by the screw or nut inside the base of the grinder. A tighter nut means a finer grind (because the grinding-wheels are closer together) whereas a looser nut means a more coarse grind (from the wheels being further apart).

Mills like these have been popular for over a hundred years. And it’s not hard to see why – they’re beautifully made, extremely robust, and they have a huge capacity! They’re also pretty easy to clean.

“How do they work, then?”

The basic operation is pretty easy. You remove the handle, take off the dome-cap, and then you fill the mill with whatever spice you need to grind. You put the cap and the handle back on, and then start grinding.

As you turn the handle, the wheels grind, and the resultant ground-up spices are collected in the base. This stops them sprinkling and spraying all over the place and keeps things neat and tidy. It’s a ridiculously simple design, and I think, very effective and sensible.

“That thing looks COOL!…I want one! GIMME!”

What!? No! Bugger off! Gitcher own darn spice mill!

In all honesty, if you do want one of these things, they’re pretty easy to find. Spend enough time at your local flea-market and you’ll eventually find one. I’ve seen loads of them go through my market for years. I never bought one because I never saw their appeal until now. They’re usually pretty cheap – these two cost almost nothing – and once they’ve been cleaned and such, they’ll last a lifetime!

If you’re after a new one though, they are still made brand new – and you can buy them online. They’re manufactured in Greece, the country of their birth, by a company called Atlas. These might not carry the earth and heavens on their shoulders, but they can grind up a world of spices for you! And they’ll do it with style. Although I generally reckon – not with half as much style as the older ones do!

 

6 thoughts on “Grinding through History – Antique Brass Spice Mills

  1. Terry L. Kiser says:

    In conducting extensive research I found that it was the Turks who actually invented the type of coffee mill you reviewed two different size examples of in this video of yours. The Greeks then later apparently copied the design, and as can be seen via their precision manufacturer of such hand made mills (i.e. the Alexander Company – 1977 to the present – website: brasspeppermill.com ) which markets their products under the Atlas, and Karyatis names, they have made a few noticeable minor improvements, and refinements to production of what they classify as their “Traditional Mills” in comparison to the original basic Turkish mill design they emulate that is currently still being hand produced for the most part by the various original, and still top family owned Turkish manufacturers of the mills, like Sozen, Zamak, and Acar. Here is a link to a website designed to provide a thorough, detailed, all encompassing history of all aspects of coffee which early on cites the Turks in two separate paragraphs as the originators of the brass tubular pocket hand crank mill with removable cup: http://www.web-books.com/Classics/ON/B0/B701/39MB701.html
    As regards that 13 1/2 inch tall 2 inch diameter Italian Made magnificent beast of yours, I found two current tall ones for sale online (each 12 1/2 inches in height) which are the only mills to presently be found for sale anywhere via Google with the same exact style of brass machine screws which have square blind heads securing the hardened tool steel grinding mechanism inside the brass tubular housing. Each one has a brass crank that is not painted black like the one on yours is , and one is of the center pivot foldable style. Although they differ a bit aesthetically from each other in minor ways as well as from yours to the same degree, they were both produced by a company with the name Garanti which each seller says is Turkish. I have my doubts about the veracity of that information however as that name appears to me to be Italian, not Turkish. I’ll be checking further to see what I can find out about that.

     
  2. Terry L. Kiser says:

    Oh, by the way, if you ever find yourself deciding that you want to sell that magnificent beast of yours, I’d be more than happy to fully accommodate you! 👌🏻

     
    • Scheong says:

      Hi terry, thanks for your messages!! Sorry but my ‘magnificent beast’ is staying put for the time being!! I don’t think I’d manage to ever find another one like that which I’d like even more!! The information in your first post was very helpful!!

       
  3. Terry L. Kiser says:

    Glad the info was of help! I figured it couldn’t hurt to ask about that Turkish Ottoman Garanti style beauty of yours! Actually I’ve since then located an actual Turkish Ottoman Garanti in uncommon rust, and dent free vintage condition that has a full height of 15 inches I’m hoping to purchase this coming Saturday. 😎

     
  4. Terry L. Kiser says:

    Earlier yesterday I created a post on Facebook you may find of interest. Here’s the link:

    https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1379321105479145&id=100002038071732

     
  5. Terry L. Kiser says:

    I discovered that that link I submitted was incorrect.
    Here’s the one I meant to provide:

    https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1379310758813513&id=100002038071732

     

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