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Tutill, George

Tutill, George
Tutill, George
Tutill, George
About the artist
Name
Tutill, George
Biography
The best known banner making firm was, George Tutill of City Road, London. Tutill started his career as a travelling fairground showman, decorating his sideshow with colourful designs. He set up his banner firm in 1837 and used his techniques of fairground art to produce bright, decorative banners, moving to the premises at 83 City Road in 1859. Tutill patented his technique of India Rubber paint, in 1861. This was used to great effect in the great painted central roundels that appear on his banners. The paint is bright, pliant and flexible and it enabled the banner to be rolled without the paint cracking. By the 1880s and with the installation of a great jacquard loom, Tutill could produce huge seamless, silk, damask banners that became his trademark. The Jacquard loom enabled the scrolls and ornamental work to be woven into the banner. A banner like this offered a sense of pageantry and ceremony, of permanence and solidity and of dignity and self-respect. They could be carried in rallies and demonstrations, in processions and parades, meetings and events and picnics and funerals.
In 1912 a twelve-foot by eleven-foot (3.60m x 3.30m) damask woven and painted banner cost thirty guineas. It was a major financial undertaking for an organisation to order a George Tutill banner. It would have been seen as a mark of success, a status symbol to be carried with a sense of pride and achievement.

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