This Woman Would Buy a Pig in a Poke or Any Porker, Be It Stuffed or Bronzed

Paulette Schaedel went whole hog after starting to collect the pigs and pig-related items that are displayed in almost every room of her South Allentown home.

Schaedel says she had 740 porkers and related items at last count. It’s doubtful that anyone who has seen her home would dispute this.

The theme of her collection is obvious from the minute the front door--dressed up with a pastel-colored fabric wreath featuring two pigs--is opened and a dog wearing a T-shirt with a catchy pig saying on it comes to greet the visitor.

It probably does not surprise anyone who knows Schaedel that the dog answers to the name of Miss Piggy.

‘Swine’ Sweat Shirt

Attired in a “Swine” sweat shirt paired with jeans and oversized soft-sculpture pig slippers, the collector points out the pair of kissing pigs on the rocker in the living room.

Also decorating the living room are a framed picture of barnyard pigs and the cradle holding a pig whose nursing babies are joined to her by Velcro.

The collector admits to a fascination for the animals that dates back to reading about Wilbur the Pig in “Charlotte’s Web” as a child. But it wasn’t until the Miss Piggy character skyrocketed to fame that she began collecting pigs in earnest.

“She really set me off,” says Schaedel. “I thought she was fantastic.”

In Coal and in Crystal

In the living room, two display cases--one topped by a pinata resembling a pig--hold an assortment of pigs that range from a crystal model less than an inch long to one carved from coal. Both of these were gifts from family members.

Nearby is a porker in a box bearing the words “hogs and kisses.”

Occupying a prominent place in one display case is an ironstone dish with a pig painted in the center that belonged to her father as a child. Schaedel reaches in and removes a small coin from Bermuda that has a pig impression on it. She also has items from West Germany and Canada.

Schaedel, who takes advantage of every opportunity to display her collection, substituted pigs for the bird that once inhabited a wicker cage in her dining area and arranged a series of pigs on her daughters’ discarded doll-house furniture.

Pig-Shaped Gifts

On her wedding day, the car carrying Schaedel and her husband, Gary, had doll-size versions of Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog on it instead of the traditional bride and groom. She says many bridal-shower gifts were pig-shaped or pig-decorated.

In the kitchen one wall is devoted to items such as pig-decorated hot pads, a copper cutout of a pig and a ceramic frying pan with a pig in it.

Some objects are not purely decorative; a wooden pig keeps house keys within reach; another has a clock face on it. A set of pigs holds mail. Pig magnets dot the refrigerator; a “pig out” towel dangles from its handle.

The collector confesses to having a device in her refrigerator that plays the message, “Making a pig of yourself again?” every time the appliance door is opened.

Pig Theme at Work

Her co-workers at American Telephone & Telegraph Co. kid her about the T-shirts with pig themes that she frequently wears to work.

Schaedel says she and her husband aren’t the only collectors in the household.

Her son Kelly Smith, 18, focuses on Garfield items; daughters Richelle and Amber Smith, 13 and 11, prefer cats and parrots, respectively. She also has a stepson, Eric Schaedel, 14.

Lined up on the deep windowsill of Schaedel’s living room are an assortment of pig planters, many of them wicker. Her bedroom holds the biggest pig in her collection, large enough to require its own seat on the bus on the return trip from Atlantic City where she bought it.

Banks, Puppets

Piggy banks line a shelf in the recreation room; a grouping of Miss Piggy puppets is propped up on an organ. Oversize upright piggy banks stand at both sides of the fireplace and in a corner.

Schaedel receives pigs and pig-related items as gifts and finds them at auctions, flea markets, yard sales and through a Boston-based catalogue titled “Hog Wild!”