page_title: Paul Revere Pottery
section_title: Design
hierarchical_section_title: Paul Revere Pottery / Design
caption_attribution_description: Paul Revere Pottery of the Saturday Evening Girls' Club (United States (Massachusetts, Boston), 1907 - 1942) , Sara Galner (United States, 1894 - 1982) Pitcher, 1914 Ceramic, Earthenware, Height: 7 3/4 in. (19.69 cm); Diameter: 5 1/2 in. (13.97 cm) Gift of Max Palevsky (AC1995.250.30) Wikipedia Loves Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art This photo of item # AC1995.250.30 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art was contributed under the team name "artifacts" as part of the Wikipedia Loves Art project in February 2009. Los Angeles County Museum of Art The original photograph on Flickr was taken by Beesnest McClain—please add a comment to the original Flickr page whenever a use has been made on Wikipedia or another project. Project galleries on Flickr: this institution, this team
context_page_description: The Paul Revere Pottery was a woman-run American art pottery founded during the Progressive Era in Boston, Massachusetts in the United States. It emerged as a subgroup of the Saturday Evening Girls Club. The library group was started and guided by Edith Guerrier, a librarian; her partner, Edith Brown, an artist; and Helen Osborne Storrow, the financial patron of the group. The Saturday Evening Girls Club was established in 1899, and located in Boston's North End. The group aimed to serve as an intellectual and social hub for young immigrant girls that otherwise had very few economic, educational, or social opportunities due to cultural differences. Paul Revere Pottery was established in the early twentieth century. The pottery gained national and international recognition.
context_section_description: The earthenware works came in numerous forms, operated at multiple levels of function and utility, and had complex, decorative glaze surfaces. Guerrier and Brown hired a local potter and pottery chemist who had worked in the Merrimac Pottery of Newburyport, Massachusetts, to help set the pottery in motion. The chemist provided the S.E.G. with a handful of recipes to begin working with.</ref> The studio primarily utilized yellow, blue, green, gray, white, and brown glazes at its onset. The range of glaze formulas and colorant usage expanded over time as technical skill was built and funding was more readily established. Soon, the pottery had a rich array of colors on their ware that played off and activated more fully the fanciful design elements.
  Brown is credited for the principle designs for the pottery's works. Popular surface treatment of ceramic ware began to permeate the technical process and design. These designs harkened back to folk art while simultaneously expressing influence from Art Nouveau. The motifs ranged from simplified, country landscapes and houses of import to scenes from American history, such as Paul Revere making his famous ride. Floral designs including stylized lotus, tulips, and roses adorned many surfaces in equal measure with barnyard or symbolic wild animals, which pranced alongside winding script or grassy horizon lines. Bowls and plates with phrases or mottos involving allusions to virtues, or pieces bearing individualized names, were the most popular from the pottery, especially within the run of ware that was designed as a children's line.
  Many of the forms that came out of the pottery were wheel thrown, but the forms which were more popular and produced in greater abundance were expressed from molds. Every pottery piece is signed with “S.E.G.” on the bottom, signifying the reading group, followed by the initials of the young woman artist who made or finished the form. On occasion, multiple initials were present on the forms.
  In addition to making pottery vessels and objects, Paul Revere Pottery also made several ceramic tile friezes, usually depicting people interacting in wholesome environments with idyllic, romantic interactions occurring amongst characters and animals.
caption: Earthenware pitcher made by Sara Galner, 1914.
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