EarlyAmericanCeramics.com: Two Italian Immigrant Potters in Essex County, Massachusetts and the Italian-Style Wares They Made

Sunday, December 17, 2017

Two Italian Immigrant Potters in Essex County, Massachusetts and the Italian-Style Wares They Made

I have written two feature stories that will be printed soon in industry publications for February that is outside of my normal writing for the New England Antiques Journal. The first is a lengthy story about the eighteenth and nineteenth Dodge potteries in Exeter, New Hampshire, Portsmouth, New Hampshire and Portland, Maine that will be published in Maine Antique Digest; whereas, the second tells the story about the Moses Paige (1847/48-1941) Pottery in Peabody, Massachusetts, circa 1876-1945, which will be published in Antiques and the Arts Weekly.

I do not want to get into the specifics about Paige's pottery this morning since it will spoil what I have written; however, it has been well-published that immigrant potters have played a major role in both red earthenware and stoneware production in America, as early as the seventeenth century.

This influence even continued into the twentieth century when Paige employed two Italian immigrant potters living in Salem, Massachusetts, who later went on to acquire the Paige Pottery and attempt their own style of production. Unfortunately, though, the popularity of this production never caught on in Essex County, Massachusetts in the 1940s - and, it has since been a style of production that has been pretty much forgotten.

Although, Massachusetts author, Lura Woodside Watkins did witness these Italian potters at work, when she was writing 'Early New England Potters and Their Wares' before it was published in 1950. "Two Italians, Ermano and Luigi Paolucci acquired the old Osborn-Reed-Paige Pottery, where they attempted to throw pots and to run the kiln, but they had not enough skill to do excellent hand work and they found machine methods unprofitable in competition with the great modern factories. They nevertheless turned out a number of interesting things in Italian style. These were principally pitchers and large deep dishes, tin-enameled, and painted in gay floral designs. They also succeeded in producing some colored glazes, such as a soft rose color, on a red earthenware body."

Frank Kaminski, an auctioneer in Beverly, Massachusetts actually sold paperwork in 2010 that revealed Luigi Paolucci discussing imported pottery in Italian on January 28, 1914 with another Italian immigrant (potter?), Enrico Caruso, who lived in New York City. I believe these letters predate the Paoluccis employment at the Paige Pottery.

The following two pitchers are very-possibly an example of the rare Italian-style production that was accomplished by the Paoluccis in Peabody. Both bases are wire cut, which is a characteristic commonly found on wares made at the Paige Pottery - and, the decoration is exactly like Watkins described with a "tin enameled glaze, and painted in gay floral designs."

The first pitcher is owned by the Peabody Historical Society, which was acquired by the museum from a local home in the 1980s. The second pitcher is an object that I have known about in Essex County for six-or-seven years - and, I have always wondered if it was made in Peabody. But I recently realized it was made by the same manufacturer as is the museum's pitcher after finalizing my article about the Paige Pottery a few weeks ago at the Peabody Historical Society.

Note: The Paoluccis influence on the Paige Pottery is further discussed in my upcoming article in Antiques and the Arts Weekly. Here is also a link to a tin enameled and painted pitcher, circa 1920s that was likely made at the Paige Pottery soon after the Paoluccis arrived in America, which is owned today by Historic New England.

Pitcher Owned by Peabody, Mass. Historical Society