DONKEY WEATHERVANE

This is one of two donkey weathervanes offered by West Coast Weather Vanes. The earlier of the two designs is our Trotting Donkey weathervane. The more recent design featured here was originally commissioned by one of our best customers, who has commissioned sixteen designs from us. We worked from a photo of her donkey. According to her, this donkey looked very sweet but was rather an irritable character in real life.

In keeping with the distinctive Jerusalem Cross that appears over the donkey’s shoulders, this weathervane looks nice with the optional gold and/or palladium leafing on the mane, cross, belly, muzzle and tail, however, it can be made entirely in copper if you prefer. This is a popular design and we have representatives in Hawaii, Georgia, Pennsylvania as well as California. 

The customer photo shown above right, was graciously sent to us from the Big Island in Hawaii. This is a medium sized Standing Donkey weathervane with a gold leafed mane, tail, belly patch, Jerusalem cross and eye ring. The photo is shot looking towards Mauna Kea, the tallest mountain in the world (measured from the ocean floor)

We recently received some more photos of this weathervane from a customer in Southern California (Above right, top). They built a new 900 square foot barn with a steeply pitched roof and cupola. They selected the Standing Donkey weather vane in part because of the book, “Sylvester & The Magic Pebble by William Steig (for which he won a 1970 Caldecott Medal). It was their daughter’s favorite book.

The donkey or ass, Equus africanus asinus, is a domesticated member of the Equidae or horse family, and an odd-toed ungulate. The wild ancestor of the donkey is the African Wild Ass, E. africanus. In the western United States, a small donkey is sometimes called a burro (from the Spanish word for the animal). A male donkey or ass is called a jack, a female a jenny, and offspring less than one year old, a foal (male: colt, female filly).While different species of the Equidae family can interbreed, offspring are almost always sterile. Nonetheless, horse/donkey hybrids are popular for their durability and vigor. A mule is the offspring of a jack (male donkey) and a mare (female horse). The much rarer successful mating of a male horse and a female donkey produces a hinny.

Asses were first domesticated around 3000 BC, approximately the same time as the horse, and have spread around the world. They continue to fill important roles in many places today and domesticated species are increasing in numbers, but the African wild ass and another relative, the Onager, are endangered. As "beasts of burden" and companions, asses and donkeys have worked together with humans for centuries.