Spinning Dong-key Brooch

There are two upstanding features of this extraordinary brooch. One is the distaff. The other – is not.

If there is anything the European Middle Ages found more shocking, and therefore funnier, than confusion of a division between animal and human, it was crossing a line between male and female. Here a, very male, donkey undertakes the quintessentially female (and human) task of spinning, transgressing both borders at once. Of course, folks may just have found his appendage – and his apparent excitement over spinning – hilarious.

The original brooch was found in Dordrecht and is dated 1400-1450. Our version is a perfect celebration of spinning, gender-bending, and donkeys.