Peter Ulrich started gathering his collection with the first piece given to him by his Swiss father, Franz Ulrich who immigrated to Peru during the Great Depression. Peter's parents, Franz and Pepa originally lived and worked in mines high up in the Andes Mountains near a town called Lircay where Peter was born. Franz and Pepa were entrepeneurs and eventually moved to Lima to start a machine shop business. By trade, Franz was an engineer, and along with his Swiss friend, Roger Schuler, invented the first rotisserie style chicken oven, helping make pollo a la brasa what it is today. As the Ulrichs' made a life for themselves, they started collecting pottery and textiles, eventually growing their collection through their travels around Peru.

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Peter immigrated to the United States in the early 1960s, bringing the pottery collection with him.