Unique, never displayed and like new, original silkscreen map
showing Cape Ann, Massachusetts, Rockport and Gloucester.
Designed, silkscreened and signed by the renowned silkscreen artist, Jim Tillett.
Sold by the Jim Tillett Gallery, St. Thomas, USVI, in 1980.
The original, silkscreened canvas map, is now unavailable new.
The silkscreened canvas map measures 49 inches high by 33 inches wide.
The map shows Gloucester, Massachusetts, and the Cape Ann peninsula.
Elevations are shown in shades of green. Local routes are shown in a light, slightly metallic gold color.
The canvas itself, (map plus edges), measures, 54.5" long by 34.5" wide.
The "Cape Ann" silkscreen canvas was purchased in 1980, and then stored, loosely rolled and sealed, (one owner).
It is in like new condition and has never been used/displayed.
However, there is a small original fault and an area with light discoloration, (photos*).
*(Please note the last three photos: there is an original small error in printing on the right side, and also some original background discoloration noted in the upper left hand corner.)
This canvas silkscreen is sold as it was purchased, loosely rolled with no frame.
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James Tillett
Jim Tillett (d. 1996) was a prolific and highly collected master screen printer and map maker.
In 1959, he transformed an old Danish farm into what is now known as Tillett Gardens art gallery. This gallery was the first venue on St. Thomas that was devoted entirely to artists and their art. Prior to the opening of Tillett Gardens, artists had to show their work at hotel lobbies and other similar venues.
Jim Tillett utilized the box method of applying color to canvas that was created by his father*. This method allows for a continuous and rich flow of colors in varying textures.
The 1961, Jim Tillett Silkscreen Workshop and Gallery, in the Village of Tutu, St. Thomas, USVI, as described by, "Virgin Islands History":
Inside the building, are two tables seventy-five feet long on which the printing of the fabric is done. The many screens used in the printing process are visible along the shelves which hold large pots of exotic colorfast dyes. Along another wall is a smaller table of forty-feet on which Mr. Tillett experiments and makes his fabric samples.
Across the courtyard from the printworks in another old converted barn, is the retail shop in which all the fabrics are displayed and retailed. There is a wide variety of fabrics including silk, linen, cotton, terry cloth and canvas which are all sold by the yard.
*George Tillett had been one of the chief inventors and pioneers in the silkscreen printing field. Tillett Textiles’ story spans four generations and multiple continents. Patriarch George Tillett pioneered the silk-screening process in the early 20th century. His two sons, Leslie and James, conceived their own textiles after joining a circle of artists, Diego Rivera among them, in Mexico.
Leslie Tillett, also a well known silkscreen artist and very popular in the 1960's, was James Tillett's brother.
From Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum:
Leslie Tillett learned textile printing from his father, George Tillett, whose family had been in the textile industry for generations in England. He learned dyeing, printing and finishing techniques, and became an expert colorist.
In 1940 he moved to Mexico to establish a fabric printing workshop, Artes Tillett, with his brother James, (Jim Tillett).