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Antiques & Collecting: Coffee grinders were part of full service groceries

In the 1950s, there were still A&P grocery stores that only sold bags of coffee beans that had to be ground in a large iron grinder in the store, even though there were other brands of ground beans in bags. The customer chose the type and could grind it or ask a clerk to help. Some health food stores today still sell customers freshly ground coffee.

The Enterprise Manufacturing Company founded in Philadelphia in 1864 was one of the leading makers of both large store grinders and small iron grinders to be used at home. They also made juicers, Mrs. Potts sad irons, banks, tobacco cutters and other kitchen tools. The Enterprise store grinder made from 1886 to 1898 was 42 inches high and had two 25-inch-diameter wheels. It was a useful, expensive, status symbol for the grocery store. They were usually painted red or green with added decal decorations.

The 19th-century kitchen coffee grinder could be an iron grinder that emptied into a wooden box and made up to four servings or a wall-mounted grinder that could handle a pound of beans at a time. Collectors today like the cast-iron wall-mounted type with brass trim and a wooden drawer that caught the ground coffee. Most desirable for display if there is space is the large two-wheel grinder with an eagle finial and a cast iron stand.

Pictured is an Enterprise No. 1 cast iron coffee grinder in an unusual shape. It is 12 inches high, mounted on a wooden base. It sold at a Conestoga auction for $413.

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Q: How much is a Snoopy Astronaut doll worth? It’s made of plastic and is 9 inches tall. Snoopy is wearing his zippered spacesuit but is missing his plastic helmet and flight safety air pack. I got him when I was 9 years old, and he’s in “played with” condition.

A: Determined Productions made this Snoopy Astronaut doll in 1969, the year Apollo 10 made its voyage to the moon. Snoopy’s connection to the space program began in 1968 when NASA chose Snoopy as the mascot for its flight safety program and established the Silver Snoopy Award. Apollo 10 astronauts named their lunar module “Snoopy” and their command module “Charlie Brown,” and those were the call letters for the flight. The doll originally came dressed in a spacesuit, flight shoes, cap, large plastic helmet, flight safety pack and red scarf. Toys in perfect condition and with the original box sell for the most. They are often toys bought by adult collectors and not played with. Snoopy Astronaut, complete with all accessories and original box, sells for about $200, without the box for $100, and incomplete and not in good condition for $20 or less.

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