Le meilleur café! Vintage and Antique French Coffee Grinders

One of the first items we discovered when we began brocanting in France was the iconic French coffee grinder. I had never seen these beautiful items before and was capivated from the start.

I love a good cup of coffee in the morning and nothing beats the flavour you get from beans finely ground by hand in one of these charming pieces.

Over the past 10 years we have bought and sold an incredible range of French coffee grinders, from open brass hoppers to painted boite et tirior, classic Art Deco to stunning shiny chrome.

Having handled, cleaned and repaired so many differing styles John has become an expert in identifying individual makers and in aging each coffee grinder we buy. 

Some grinders still have the makers mark - which helps age and identify them, others are more of a mystery! These can be aged by their shape and the materials with which they have been made.

The most famous maker is Peugeot Freres (the 'Peugeot Brothers'). Now best known as makers of cars, the brothers owned a foundry at Valentigny where they designed and patented the now familiar ‘box and drawer’ design in 1840. Their invention was an immediate success and by the time of the Great Paris Exhibition in 1889 they were producing half a million grinders a year.

You can shop our current range of antique and vintage French coffee grinders on our Decorative Accessories page.