Cha-ching!

From those over half a metre high to those of a few centimetres, colourful, simple or animated by complex mechanisms, pop or classically plain: the money boxes from the collection of the Turin Savings Museum are the featured subjects of this book. The collection consists of over 1600 pieces and from those a careful selection of about a hundred was made and illustrated here with masterful photographs by Mauro Davoli. The money box is shown in its many forms in a catalogue that includes the classic pigs but also other animals, American presidents, stoves, radios, books, jars, cars, characters from films or comics and many more. Following the foreword by Franco Maria Ricci, an excursus into the history and meaning of money boxes, defined as childhood friends, from the oldest found in Priene to the most recent and "futuristic" one, there is the turbulent tale Il maiale felice by Giancarlo De Cataldo, which narrates the theft of a very distinctive pig and its unforeseen consequences. And again, Guido Guerzonia accompanies the reader into a social and cultural history of savings, illustrating the continuous development of a concept that has changed over the centuries. With English text on the opposite page.