By Justin W. Thomas

Peabody, Mass., City Directory, 1915, in which Ermanno Paolucci is listed as a potter working at 92 Central Street and Luigi Paolucci as a potter at 91 Central Street. There are records that spell the name variously, Ermano and Ermanno.

Paperwork found in a local Peabody, Mass., area estate, which includes a letter written by a man named Enrico Caruso and addressed to Luigi Paolucci in Italian regarding imported pottery, presumably from Italy, dated January 28, 1914. The paperwork also includes a postcard addressed to Luigi from the Hotel Knickerbocker in New York City, dated March 1918. This information may indicate that the Paoluccis may have also been selling imported Italian pottery in the Salem and Peabody area before 1920. Courtesy Kaminski Auctions.

Twentieth Century red earthenware pitcher with its original lid that is described by the Peabody Historical Society, Massachusetts, as “Made at Paige Pottery circa 1930 turned by John Donovan Glazed by Luigi Paolucci Black mat-glaze.” Courtesy: Peabody Historical Society.

Twentieth Century pitcher described by Historic New England: “A redware pitcher with a pinkish white body and black spine on the handle and the rim. The body of the pitcher is decorated with a black, pink and green spiral decoration (on top of a tin-enameled glaze). The pitcher was decorated by a girl of half Italian and half Argentine descent at the Peabody Pottery in 1926.” Courtesy: Historic New England.