HOW IT ALL BEGAN

My newest pig is a gift from Partners in Crime, Sydney, Australia. Watch for the photo of this very "appropriate" pig for a mystery writer.

How does a person get into collecting pigs of all things? For me this "pig mania" began in 1989. I'd been wanting to start a collection of something. As a gag gift, I was given one of those mechanical pink pigs that walks and snorts, then backs up if it hits something. The pig lurched across the floor, snorting and backing and I was laughing so hard, I knew at that moment my collection would be comprised of pigs of all types.  

I now have well over two hundred pigs.  Everything from stuffed to ceramic...antique to new.  I always mark the bottom of each one with the date and where I got it.  As time went on, I collected pigs from many places in the world. 

All I have to do is look at the bottom to know when I was there.  The pigs people give me have become my memory album.  I look at them and think of the wonderful friend who picked it out or the wonders of an exotic location, a perfect trip or magic moment.  

At first I bought pigs just because they were pigs.  As my collection grew, I decided  my pigs must have personality.  Check out my pig gallery, and you will see some pretty fun porkers.  As I photograph them, and as I acquire more, the gallery will grow.   Thanks for visiting.  Morgan St. James
 

WADE PIGS
THE WADE PIGS 

Sir Nathaniel          Lady Hillary       Anabel             Maxwell     Baby Woody

      
Back in the 1980's, Westminster National Bank  in the U.K. commissioned  Wade Potteries to create a family of piggy banks to encourage children to save money. 

If a child opened an account, they got Baby Woody.  When they had twenty-five pounds, they got Anabelle, fifty pounds - Lady Hillary - seventy-five pounds - Maxwell and if they reached one hundred pounds, they got Sir Nathaniel.  The Wade Pigs became collectibles, with Sir Nathaniel being the rarest.  I  found my first one, Anabelle, in an antique shop in Plano, Texas and fell in love with her.  The dealer filled me in on the history.  My daughter, who lives in England, gave me Baby Woody.  We found Maxwell and Lady Hillary in an an antique shop in Glastonberry, England.  Sir Nathaniel came to me via an auction site, and was shipped from England.  I love their whimsical faces.

MEET SOME MEMBERS OF THE "PIGGERY"