Saturday Evening Girls

Social history, design, and the hand of the decorator.

The Saturday Evening Girls clubs grew from educational and social programs in Boston’s North End. A pottery class introduced in 1906 developed into Paul Revere Pottery, guided by librarian Edith Guerrier and artist Edith Brown, with financial support from Helen Osborne Storrow.

The pottery provided paid work in a supportive setting. Brown supplied many designs, while individual decorators painted the wares. That combination—recognizable design language and identifiable women’s marks—is a major part of the collecting appeal.

Production moved from the North End to Brighton. The pottery is generally dated 1908–1942, although collectors should distinguish the club’s earlier activity from the formal pottery operation and later production.

Initials matter—but context matters more.

Collectors often begin with the initials painted on the base. Those can help connect a piece with a known decorator, but the complete base should be read together: pottery wording, date, clay and glaze, handwriting, form, and decoration.

Do not identify a decorator from a pair of initials alone. The same letters can occur in unrelated pottery, and genuine painters did not always form letters identically throughout their working lives.