20th Century Sponge Ware Piggy Bank

Early 20thc hand carved pig or hog with amazing patina. This is most unusual and found in the mid west.

This super rare 19th century sponge ware pottery jug is signed on base F.H.WEEKS, AKRON, OHIO with some other lettering like pat. Pending. This was used as a canteen with the original metal wire handle. This is called a harvest jug...

Early 20th century spongeware sugar shaker in great condition. The replaced cork is a rubber seal and keeps bugs out.

20th century Robinson Ransbottom cookie jar. 2qt canister. Beautiful condition.

In the late 19th century the concept of thrift became a principle by which parents encouraged their children to safe money by putting their pennies into a "piggy bank", thus the proliferation of these items by pottery manufacturers, this particular example marked "SS" on the underneath indicating "A Smith Ltd.", Longton, England whose ceramic, china, and pottery business began in 1846 by Sampson Smith. Nicely molded and in excellent condition, this proverbial pig themed penny bank is painted overall white with a multiplicity of green "spatter" spots, the pig standing on all fours has a twisted tail in back. The original finish is beautifully glazed resulting in a lovely patina to this completely original bank with no restoration or touch up paint of any kind and all of it's original hand paint intact. Since these type of antique banks typically were made without a coin removal trap, the only way to extract the coins would have been the old "knife in the slot" method and retrieving the pennies one by one; or the more simpler method of smashing and breaking the bank, which is why locating these banks is very difficult, rendering a fine example particularly rare. This example is a wonderful addition to a collection of authentic still banks, folk art, or for those who accumulate pig items. This recently came from an estate collection of pig still banks. A similar example is referenced as #633 "Two Toned Pig" in Andy Moore's "The Penny Bank Book" written in 1984 when collecting pottery banks...

American pottery still bank in the shape of a pig, used for saving coins (usually pennies) to encourage children the importance of thrift. Pottery still banks are somewhat scarce since the typical way to remove coins was to smash the bank open, albeit, with this particular example, perhaps a knife was used for coin removal (note the wear to the coin slot---see images) or perhaps the additional wear is also from many coins having been deposited. The bank is in good all original condition , from an unknown potter (unmarked) circa 1880's, and probably a variant of #633 "Two Toned Pig" in Andy Moore's "The Penny Bank Book" written in 1984 when collecting pottery banks...

Mid-Century Modern unglazed greige and glazed blue studio pottery pig sculpture/bank designed in the 1960s by David Gil and Yusuke Aida for Bennington Pott...

A delightful antique English Staffordshire pottery pig moneybox decorated in marble effect slipware glazes and dating from around 1840. The moneybox shaped as...