This  is a lovely lignum vitae coffee grinder, dating from around 1760.
The top section is open to drop the coffee beans into, the  and the grinding mechanism is still present, along with the handle, the  middle section unscrews to retrieve the ground coffee.
The coffee grinder measures 15cm h excluding the handle x 10cm w at the base.
 
Coffee beans initially were crushed by a pestle and mortar which was very time consuming hence creating a demand for a mechanical coffee grinder. Sometime between 1657 and 59 a gentleman called Nicholas Brook living in St Tulies's Street London was the only known man to be making mills for grinding the coffee to powder. they were expensive being between 40 to 45 shillings per mill. They were however of very well made using lignum vitae wood, which in itself was very expensive at that time, and also they had grinding cogs of hand forged steel.
 
The first coffee house was believed to have opened in the UK in Oxford 1651/1652 closely followed by one opening in London. Coffee houses began to spring up all over London and in cities around the Uk. They were meeting places for men, women were excluded from these coffee houses and so was alcohol! Men would meet to conduct business, discuss politics, science, poetry and news.
There would be a long table in the coffee house, you would pay a penny for your coffee and sit down and meet and mingle with whoever was there. The coffee houses also provided newspapers and other reading materials.