Saturday, December 11, 2010

Christmas present shopping

Still stuck for Christmas present ideas? At Wooden donkey we have lots of unique vintage treasures that make the perfect present. From the top: Set of six Worcester ware table mats £30; Cathrineholm coffeepot £50; Toy car £8, Owl moneybox £18; Soldier money box £25; Psychedelic storage tin £15, Set of six mod flower coasters £15 (three colour options available); Vintage Christmas Houze glass pin tray £22. I've also updated the shop today with some new finds, so hop on over!

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

New Creepy Tree cards

Creepy tree have some great new greeting card designs with a very retro feel. They cost £2.00 each (+P&P) and you can order online.


Thursday, October 28, 2010

Shop update!

Some new treasures added to the shop today and more to follow shortly!

Monday, October 18, 2010

Site hosting problems

Oopsy - we're having a few problems with our website hosting @ www.woodendonkey.com but fear not - we should be back up and running in no time and in fact our Bigcartel shop is still working fine so there is no problem with placing orders. Until we sort out the problem, we don't have any email access, so if you need to get in touch, please use the contact form in our shop. Thank you so much!

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Shop update and the big move!

Well it's busy busy busy in the Wooden donkey house at the moment. We are packing up to move house very shortly. With this in mind, I wanted to let you know that the shop will be closed for a month from Monday the 9th August. If you want to make any purchases, you've got till the end of this week! I've just updated the shop so there are lots of new, interesting items to browse, including this vintage tray which comes with a set of matching coasters. Click here to visit the shop.

Friday, July 9, 2010

Summer sale and shop update!


Just a quick post to let you know that I've just launched the Wooden donkey summer sale and I've added lots of new things to the shop today. Have a lovely sunny weekend everyone! 

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Mid-century Altenkunstadt decanters

For a few years now I've been collecting a series of porcelain decanters which were made in West Germany during the 1960s* by a German factory called "Altenkunstadt". I've been surprised by how unknown they seem to be, but this has at least given me chance to gather quite a few! Although I'm sure there are more out there that I haven't discovered yet, I feel now is the time to share my collection with you. Pictured are three of my favourites.

As well as several other figural bottles, I also have one decorated with birds in a cage, one showing a bar scene and one showing a lady peeping out of a shower! My husband doesn't like them and thinks I'm potty for loving them so much, but I think they are fabulous. I will try to photograph them all, and then add the images to a special Flickr set, which I've set up here.

Altenkunstadt made other things as well as porcelain bottles, such as vases (some of which were designed by Cari Zalloni) and candlesticks like the one shown, which was decorated by a German illustrator called Susanne Dölker. I wonder if she also decorated the decanters. Jutta Lamprecht also produced illustrations for the company. The decanters were distributed in the US by Raymor, and they still have the Raymor sticker on the base. Some came with bath salts inside, others perhaps with alcohol? If anyone out there can tell me any more about these pieces I'd love to hear from you!

*Thank you so much to Larry, who has confirmed that he bought one in Germany in 1962/63, which gives me some concrete evidence of when they were produced!

Monday, June 14, 2010

Shop update!

I'm long over due for a shop update, but finally it's here and there is a bit of a seaside-y theme going on. There are beach puzzles and fishy tiles and wall plaques. Ok, so you don't see many elephants or tigers on beaches, but just humour me for now... This vintage Galt puzzle is available for £20.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Papery goodness



I picked this up recently and am thinking about framing it. It's a vintage advertising leaflet in Dutch. The words translates as "Do it Yourself. Do it this way!" I love the little figures and the colours are still very vibrant. Inside are more classic illustrations:

And I'm not much of a knitter but couldn't resist this little knitting pamphlet from 1955:

So cute! Last but not least I found this old light metre manual from the late 1950s and fell in love with the wonderful graphic design on the cover. The info inside is pretty interesting too! So it's been a good week for papery finds.

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Bank holiday special - 20% off!

I was planning to go to Chiswick car boot sale today but as it's pouring with rain outside, maybe it can wait for another day. To cheer us up on this rainy bank holiday, I'm offering a whopping 20% off everything in the shop. Just remember to enter the code RAIN at checkout. The offer will run for a whole week (until the 10th May).

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Shop update


Lots of new finds in the shop today, including this lovely Kenneth Townsend glass dish which is part of the London scenes series he did for Chance glass. Click here to hop on over and take a look...

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Spring sale @ Wooden donkey





We're having a spring sale at Wooden donkey to make way for new finds, so hop over there and pick up a bargain! Included is this vintage Walls ice cream sign (was £120, now £100!) from an old café, featuring brilliant ice cream names like "Choc Top Woppa" and "Big Wiz".

Friday, March 5, 2010

10% off for this weekend only!

Spring is on its way and its time to freshen up my shop, so I've been fiddled around with the site colours (it actually looks a lot more like this blog now!). Hop on over and take a look and then let me know what you think. If you prefer it as it was, I can always change it back... And as I'm in such a good mood today, I've decided to give you all 10% off everything in my shop for the whole weekend! To get your 10% off, just enter "Splendid" at checkout when prompted. (The offer will end on Monday at 8pm.) Have a lovely weekend all!

Arrival of our new dining chairs

I'm very excited by the arrival of our new dining chairs today. I've been looking out for some for a while now and when these came up on the lovely vintage site Winter's Moon we knew they would be perfect. I keep going and having another look at them and a sit on them (and yes they are very comfy too!). Now to find a table to go with them...

Friday, February 26, 2010

Shop update

Well after a huge pause in my shop updates, I've finally got round to adding some more stock to the site, with more to follow this weekend. Today's featured item is this great set of vintage owl coasters, illustrated by Pat Albeck. They're in the shop now! Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Happy Valentine's Day

I couldn't let Valentine's Day go by without sharing these amazing vintage cards I recently bought. I love the stained glass effect. I think these are probably from the around the 1930s. They each fold in half and the middle of the top half pops up, but I'm not going to fold them because I'm too scared of damaging the print!

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Sagaform retro range


On one of my many strolls around the internet yesterday I discovered the new Sagaform retro range by Swedish designer Lotta Odelius. It's beautiful! These days everything has to be vintage for me, so it takes something truly special to make me sit up and take notice if it's new. Illustrated Living are stocking it in the UK and Huset in the US (both great sites for having a mooch around anyway).