Rare Penguin Donkey Mark II 1963 Bookcase By Ernest Race For Isokon

A rare find, this Penguin Donkey Mark II bookcase, designed by Ernest Race in 1963 and manufactured by Isokon for Penguin Books. It’s a small, double-sided bookcase and magazine unit – magazines and papers store in the middle section and the open, sectioned sides were designed to house Penguin paperback classics. Ernest Race is renowned as one of the leading lights in great British twentieth-century furniture design, a true pioneer, creating contemporary pieces from unusual materials in ground-breaking ways. The history of this particular bookcase is also really interesting. The original ‘Donkey’ bookcase dates back to the 1930s and was designed by Egon Riss. It was so-called because the rounded shape looked like saddle panniers. Only around 100 of this design were ever made and production stopped before the war took over. Ernest race took up the mantel in 1963, redesigning it as an altogether more modern, clean-lined version for storing orange Penguin paperbacks and these were sold via mail order to Penguin readers and collectors. It may be small but this is a mighty, iconic piece of attributed midcentury design rarely seen.