A Very Large & Highly Desirable Early Hand Painted Fairground Art Canvas Banner; 'Play Up Boys' c.1930
SOLD
Origin: British
Period: Early Twentieth Century
Provenance: Unknown
Date: c.1920-40
Width: 165 inches
Height: 33.5 inches
Boasting huge amounts of early fairground charm, the hand painted canvas banner measuring well over thirteen foot long reading in blood red circus block font script on a dirty buff ground; ‘Play Up Boys, 3 Balls for 2D, Smash 2 Pipes to Win”.
Advertising a typical fairground game of skill with a ball, (and a large amount of luck), the participant would have gained three balls for two pennies and would have had to hit two pipes to win their prize.
Suspended from metal eyelets the painted canvas is in fair overall condition, there are a few areas of loss and one burn hole to the left centre but all of these anomalies make for sensational back story.
A very early example of fairground painted canvas, wonderfully simple and hugely evocative.