More than 1,500 piggy banks…
As part of the “The Art of Savings” initiative, the Museum of Saving inaugurates a new exhibition space: the SAVINGS room. The new room joins the five ones already existing and will be entirely dedicated to a rich and important collection of piggy banks donated by Rocco and Nicola Tana.
The collection includes over 1,500 pieces from all over the world, of different times, shapes, materials and sizes, and contains the most varied types of piggy banks. From classic little pigs to cash registers, passing through a large variety of animals, means of transport (cars, trains, ships…), mailboxes, human figures (heads, half-lengths, whole figures) and books.
A special section is dedicated to American mechanical piggy banks from the late 1800s, manufactured with the intent to entertain children and encourage them to save money. They were produced until World War One, when iron and cast iron began to serve, unfortunately, for other purposes.
The SAVE room, which can hold about 700 pieces, will exhibit in rotation the numerous specimens and will host temporary thematic exhibitions.
COLLECTION OF PIGGY BANKS: a curiosity
The English idiom “piggy bank” is a synonym of “money box” because of the widespread custom of giving it the shape of a pig. According to one of the most accepted hypotheses, their curious shape derives from the material used to model the first ones: a kind of clay used in the 15th century also for plates and bottles, called “pygg”. The term, very similar to “pig”, was soon mistaken for the name of pigs, and potters began to give money boxes this shape.
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