AnOther has found an infinitely chic way to save, going back to (admittedly gold plated) basics with this Oversized Piggy Bank by Harry Allen, chosen by Avenue 32’s editorial assistant Monica Ainley, and winner of the Most Loved vote...
All this talk of credit crunches, frugality and belt tightening makes monitoring our finances, especially with the excesses of the festive period nearly upon us, a gloomy necessity. However, for those who wish to banish the banality of monitoring the savings account or scouring the supermarket for BOGOFs, AnOther has found an infinitely chic way to save, going back to (admittedly gold plated) basics with this Oversized Piggy Bank by Harry Allen, chosen by Avenue 32’s editorial assistant Monica Ainley, and winner of the Most Loved vote.
The history of the Piggy Bank as a saving device is uncertain, but it is thought that it derived its name from “pygg”, an orange clay used to make salt jars in the Middle Ages. Long after clay was dropped in favour of ceramic, pygg jars retained their name, a name that also clung to the impregnable money pots that needed to be broken to gain access to the cash within. The porcine shape remained as pigs were thought to bring luck and good fortune, with their ahh factor outweighing the destructive urges of impecunious souls with baseball bats. Today pigs are a prevalent cultural phenomenon across art, film, TV and literature: Warhol painted them in garish technicolour, George Orwell made them the key protagonists in his political fable Animal Farm, Warner Brothers touched hearts the world over with the stammering charms of Porky Pig, and there are few who haven’t been seduced by the spangled stage costumes, long eyelashes and steely will of Kermit’s diva girlfriend Miss Piggy.
"The porcine shape remained as pigs were thought to bring luck and good fortune, with their ahh factor outweighing the destructive urges of impecunious souls with baseball bats."
As Christmas beckons, with the delicious prospect of pigs-in-blankets and more dubious promise of financial extravagance, we ask avowed pig-fancier Ainley for her money saving tips, find out who she considers to be her porcine alter-ego and concede that her pet pig would be infinitely more glamorous, at least in name, than ours.
Why did you choose to Love this piggy bank?
To save his bacon.
If you owned it, where would you keep it?
Away from the neighhhh-bours.
Who is your favourite porcine character in art/film/literature?
Snowball from Animal Farm did have a way with words.
Babe, Miss Piggy, Piglet, Empress of Blandings or Circe's swine?
Right now I am aspiring to Babe: Pig in the City but in reality it’s more of a Piglet seduced by Circe’s swine situation.
If you owned a pig, what would you call it?
Dita von Teese.
Do you have a money box?
No, only an Avenue 32 shoe box.
What's your best money saving tip?
Where there’s muck there’s brass.
Aesthetically, what's your favourite currency in the world?
Aesthetically I don’t deal in currency but I live for trading stock.
What are you looking forward to about winter?
Truffle hunting.
What was the last thing you bought?
I wish it was this amazing talon ring by Duffy. But in fact it was a pack of Percy Pigs. They remind me of my Mum.
Text by Tish Wrigley
Research by Jane Fayle
