Antique Coffee Grinders Review: American, English and European

Gorgeous and useful, “Antique Coffee Grinders” by Michael L. White is a wonderful book for anyone looking to build their collection of vintage household items, OR looking for the perfect coffee table book.

For the pile of coffee table books, it would be hard to imagine a more perfect piece. “Antique Coffee Grinders” weighs about 3 1/2 pounds and has about 600 (color) photos, so while it’s not unwieldy, you’ll know you’ve got something formidable on your hands when you pick it up, just by holding on your lap conveys the weight of the coffee-making history it tells. Guests who enjoy their coffee (or who appreciate high-quality, antique housewares) will surely enjoy flipping through this book.

But as charming as this book is, its true value lies in what it offers the collector of vintage (mainly vintage) coffee grinders and grinders. Chronicling over 300 years of grinder history, the former devotee will find plenty of information to ease their search for new parts.

Make no mistake: “Antique Coffee Grinders” doesn’t explain where to buy the real treasures. It depends on you. Online auctions, flea markets, garage sales, or real antique stores are all possibilities, and hopefully hunting is part of the fun you get from collecting vintage items. Enjoy it!

But having found good sources for quality vintage coffee grinders, one of any collector’s biggest challenges is differentiating between junk and treasure. That’s where this book shines – it provides enormously detailed information on the maker of any particular coffee grinder and how much a well-maintained coffee grinder could be worth to the serious antique collector. Some collectors like to get down to business with anything old (and the older the better), but if you put these vintage pieces together to create a portfolio with marketable value, ‘who made it’, ‘when they made it’, ‘where they made it’ and ‘how much someone might pay for it’ are critical pieces of information. You’ll be hard pressed to find a better resource than “Antique Coffee Grinders” to make sure you have those parts!

All in all, I have to say without reservation: this is a good book. If you love good old fashioned coffee grinders, the real old stuff, adding this to your library is a ‘no lose’ move.