Alfredo Paoli (b. 27 May 1905 in Calavorno, Italy) and Giovanni Paoli (b. 6 March 1900 also in Calavorno, Italy), both British subjects, traded as Paoli Bros and produced some excellent chalkware pieces. Below is my research into their origins and why this area was SO important to what became the chalkware industry in England.
CALAVORNO: A “FRAZIONE” OF THE FIGURINAL CAPITAL
Calavorno is not merely a village near Lucca., famous for other designers in European chalkware history. It is a valley-floor frazione (sub-division) of the Comune of Coreglia Antelminelli (in the yellow box below), situated in the Valle del Serchio approximately 26 km north of Bagni de Lucca (in the red box below) and 10 km below the hilltown of Coreglia itself.
Coreglia Antelminelli is the documented historical epicentre of the Italian figurinai tradition. The practice of crafting plaster figurines spread through Coreglia between the 16th and 17th centuries and became the dominant occupation of its entire population. A 1774 petition from the Council of the Men of Coreglia to the Republic of Lucca records that emigration for figurine-making had already so depopulated the town that they requested permission to hold assemblies with fewer members than the statutes required.
The Coreglia area encompasses several “frazioni”: the upland settlements of Gromignana, Lucignana, Tereglio, and Vitiana, and the valley-floor settlements of Piano di Coreglia, Ghivizzano, and Calavorno. The Paoli brothers were born in this last area. Their birthplace placed them directly within the community whose identity was inseparable from the craft they would practise in London.
THE “FIGURINAI” EMIGRATION PATTERN
The figurinai tradition was defined by emigration. Artisans would leave Coreglia in groups, usually in spring, travel overland through France, and disperse across Europe and the Americas to sell their work. Some returned seasonally; others settled permanently abroad. The pattern repeated across generations and is extensively documented at the Museo Civico della Figurina di Gesso e dell’Emigrazione in Coreglia Antelminelli (founded 1975, and is dedicated to Professor Guglielmo Lera).
Between 1866 and 1873 alone, 592 figuristi emigrated from Bagni di Lucca, 557 from Barga, and 484 from Coreglia. Primary destinations were France and the Americas, with England, Germany and Brazil as secondary markets. The Serchio valley’s figurinai were specifically documented as producing itinerant labour for Britain from the early 19th century.
The National Portrait Gallery (London) holds documentary evidence that Italian plaster figure makers from Tuscany were arriving at the Port of London from Boulogne as early as 1853 in organised groups, with their occupation listed as “figurista” in the vernacular. The Lucca figurinai were so associated with this London street trade that the image of a young Italian holding aloft a tray of plaster figures became a recognised “Cry of London” by 1815.
IMPACT FOR THE PAOLI BROTHERS
Giovanni Paoli was born in 1900, Alfredo in 1905. Both were born into a community in Calavorno where figurine-making was not a commercial choice but a cultural inheritance spanning centuries. Their father’s generation, and quite possibly their grandfather’s, would have participated in this tradition.
The Paoli brothers arriving in London and establishing a plaster figurine business was not a commercial pivot or an opportunistic response to post-war consumer demand. It was the continuation of a craft lineage that their birthplace community had practised and exported for at least two hundred years before them. They were, in the most precise sense, figurinai from the figurinai’s homeland.
Certificates of Naturalisation were granted on 19 January 1956, Giovanni (R1/14516) and Alfred (R1/14517).
The business was registered at 125-127 East Road, London N1.
For their piece Reg. No. 900004, their two sons/relatives(?), Gianpaolo and Giancarlo, both as Italian subjects, joined the design team.
Giancarlo Paoli married in June 1961, to a Ms. Teresa Salina in Holborn, London. They gave birth to Stefania in September 1963, registered in the district of Islington in London.
And Gianpaolo Paoli married in June 1965 in St. Pancras, London to a Ms. Coloquori.
From the free Births, Deaths and Marriages site, I can see that Giovanni died in June 1969 in the District of Marylebone, London.
RESEARCH NOTE
The Museo della Figurina di Gesso e dell’Emigrazione in Coreglia Antelminelli (museofigurina@comune.coreglia.lu.it) holds approximately 1,300 items including passports, letters, photographs and emigration documents of figurinai families from the area.
A Paoli family search via this museum archive would be a great insight. Just have to put it on my bucket list. The museum also functions as a genealogical research centre for descendants of Coreglia emigrant families.
The naturalisation date of January 1956 tells us when they formalised British status, not when they arrived. Giovanni was 55 and Alfredo was 50 in 1956. The critical question is: when did they come to the UK, and under what circumstances? Possible arrival windows: (a) Pre-WWII, possibly 1920s-30s, following the established pattern of Lucca figurinai migration to England; (b) Post-WWII, from 1945 onwards, as part of the wave of Italian economic migration to Britain during reconstruction. IN PROGRESS
From 10 June 1940, all Italian nationals in Britain over the age of 16 were classified as “enemy aliens” and subject to internment (Home Office HO 396 series). If the Paoli brothers were in the UK by 1940, they would have faced tribunals, possible internment, and potentially deportation. Giovanni would have been 40 and Alfredo 35. Clearly they remained in the UK, but it would be interesting to understand what happened to them during this period if they were in the UK from 1940. IN PROGRESS
The naming of the second-generation participants as “Gianpaolo” and “Giancarlo” suggests Italian naming conventions maintained across generations, and that Giancarlo’s 1961 marriage and 1963 birth of Stefania in Islington indicates that at least one branch of the family was well-established in London by the early 1960s. If Gianpaolo and Giancarlo were sons of Giovanni and/or Alfredo (rather than more distant relatives), and were themselves Italian subjects at the time of Reg. No. 900004, this suggests they were either born in Italy after the brothers emigrated, or born in London but not naturalised. The age question matters: if Giancarlo married in 1961 at a typical age of 25-30, he was born around 1931-1936, which would place his conception in Italy or in early pre-war London. IN PROGRESS
The Paoli Brothers collection can be found here
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