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The Donkey with Panniers / Pack Mule with Panniers
 
This page attempts to record what is known about the origin and history of the origami design known as the Donkey with Panniers / Pack Mule with Panniers. Please contact me if you know any of this information is incorrect or if you have any other information that should be added. Thank you.

There is an article with further information about this design by David Lister, who calls it 'the Pack Mule with Panniers' at https://britishorigami.info/academic/lister/pack_mule.php which states, inter alia, 'the Pack Mule and the Elephant appear in many Spanish and Argentinean books of paperfolding, including "El Mundo de Papel" by Nemesio Montero (1939), "El Plegado y Cartonaje" (1940) by Corina Lucia and Antonio Lucia, "Papiroflexia" by E. Gutierrez Gil (undated) and "Papiro Zoo" by Giordano Lareo (1941). The Elephant, but not the Pack Mule appears in "Tratado de Papiroflexia Superior" (1944) by Dr. Vicente Solorzano Sagredo, who had been born in Spain, but who had emigrated to Argentina. However, I have not been able to inspect all of Solorzano's books and the Pack Mule may appear in one of his other books.'

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1939

As far as I know diagrams for this design were first published as 'El borriquillo con aguaderas' (The Donkey with Panniers) in 'El Mundo de Papel' by Dr Nemesio Montero, which was published by G Miranda in Edicions Infancia in Valladolid in 1939.

At the top of the Indice Alfabetico de Modelos (Alphabetical Index of Designs) the author states: ‘Los modelos senalados con un punto * son originales del autor y de se hermana Esperanza.’ (The designs marked with an asterisk are originals of the author and his sister Esperanza.) This statement is, however, problematical. While some of the designs marked with asterisks may indeed be original works of the author and/or his sister the status of this claim is somewhat dubious in relation to other designs, including 'El borriquillo con aguaderas', which is most probably a design invented at an earlier date by a follower of Miguel de Unamuno. (Per Juan Gimeno)

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1940

The same design appears as 'Asno Carguero' in 'El Plegado y Cartonaje en la Escuela Primaria' by Antonio M Luchia and Corina Luciani de Luchia, which was published by Editorial Kapelusz in Buenos Aires in 1940.

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1951

A version of the design also appears as 'El Asno' in 'Papiroflexia' by Elias Gutierrez Gil, which was self-published in 1951

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1956

The design also appears as 'The Pack Mule with Panniers' in 'Paper Magic' by Robert Harbin, which was published by Oldbourne in London in 1956. The text notes, 'Origin: Spanish'.

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1960

This design was featured in the 1960 Rupert Annual. The article by David Lister quoted above explains some of the background behind this publication of the design.

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