Oh yeah a very common type of vice. It was used mostly by Blacksmith's back in the day. You can find them around a lot of old barns and tool sheds, and of course in museums and old blacksmith's shops. Another very common version of that vice was miniaturized with a handle added. Known as the Hand Held Vice it too was common in the blacksmith shop.
Just last weekend I saw two at the common ground fair. One was in a blacksmith shop they have on their fairgrounds, while another was in a blacksmiths trailer that he uses to go on the fair circuit. Yet another one I saw was at the Leonard Wood's Logging Museum in Bradley, Maine. I do have a picture of that one...well sort of. In the photo I took of the old blacksmith shop there, you can see the vice in the very left hand corner of this picture.
They are quite common as far as vices go, and not that hard to come by, but still it has some value, and the fact that it was your grandfather's has even higher value.