Georgian Coffee Mill
Prior to about 1780, is was necessary to roast your own coffee beans in front of the fire in a rotating cylinder and then mill them in grinders like this one.
Georgian Coffee Mill
A coffee mill, lignum vitae, iron, c. 1730
Height: 22cm CT1995.372
This early Georgian finely turned coffee mill is made of a hard and heavy type of wood from the Guaiacum officinale tree in South America known as Lignum Vitae (lit.: wood of life). This type of wood was particularly popular in the seventeenth century in Holland, where it was used in cabinet making.
Lignum, being an oily timber, is difficult to glue and the sections are either held together with metal straps or screwed together by turning a thread on a lathe.
A detachable iron handle with a wooden knob rotates the mill and this handle can be stored inside the base when the mill is not in use.
Coffee, although not as popular and more expensive than tea in Georgian times, was readily available throughout England and Lord Fairfax bought weekly supplies of the beans from a local supplier Ann Baker.
The roasting of the beans would have been done “in house” at this time and an example of a roasting drum can be seen located in front of the fire.
This object is located in the Kitchen
It is categorised as Miscellaneous
This page was last updated on 11 April 2007