The story of how piggy banks became part of Western culture is ... because a few items, such as ceramic hot-water bottles, are smoothly rounded like a pig’s body and have indeed been called ...

Earlier in the year, I was at an auction and up came a lot I hadn't clocked beforehand - a set of NatWest ceramic piggy banks. I was born in the 1980s and work in finance, but never had the pigs ...