This early book of tattoo designs, hand-painted in Japan around 1905, offered a rare glimpse into the career of a traveling artist in the Meiji era. Measuring 8½ by 7¼ inches, it featured more than 175 designs and brought the sale’s highest result: $22,140, from an advanced collector in the United States ($10/15,000).
Review by Madelia Hickman Ring
PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — It has been just 11 months since Derin Bray launched Bray & Co., Auctions with a 214-lot Tattoo, Circus, Sideshow & Curiosities auction, which was 97 percent sold by lot and totaled $301,678. Bray repeated the feat on August 25, and not only exceeded the size of the auction but the total yield, achieving $395,443 and a growth of 131 percent with all but two lots finding new homes.
Flash art, tattoo collectibles and ephemera and related material enjoy an international audience that has stepped up to support Bray’s sales: descendants of an important early Japanese tattoo artist contributed a large collection to the auction and he fielded calls and bids from buyers around the world. More than 350 bidders participated in his first sale; this grew 154 percent a year later with nearly 560 bidders participating in his most recent event.
Bray noted the field as one that has “existed for a long time, underground, as a very small group of people. My sales are making it more available and accessible; a lot of these things wouldn’t have ever been on the radar of collectors just because of where it’s coming from. There is cross-over interest from people who collect photography, ephemera and folk art. I’m seeing a renaissance right now for people who understand the material. A lot of collectors are in their 20s, 30s or 40s; many of them are tattoo artists or it’s part of their heritage.”
What Bray described in the catalog as being “one of the finest examples known of flash art from the early 1900s” was the star lot, earning $22,140. The circa 1905 hand-painted book of tattoo designs for Western clients was inscribed both “Y. Sudsuki” and “S. Yamasaki” and featured American, British and Australian motifs popular in the period. It came to Bray from a Japanese seller because of the result he’d achieved for a similar example in his September 2023 sale.
G.E. “Nipper” Miller’s circa 1950 travel trunk was described as “remarkably complete,” with flash art and everything the Canadian tattoo artist would need. An Italian buyer had the $14,760 prevailing bid ($5/10,000).
Travel trunks — made to be portable workstations for itinerant tattoo artists — achieved some of the sale’s highest prices. A circa 1925 Art Deco example, made by Amund Dietzel (1891-1974) in Milwaukee, Wis., had both exhibition and publication history and sold to an international buyer for $17,220. A circa 1950 green-painted trunk used by tattoo artist Gilbert Edward “Nipper” Miller (1927-2003) of Midland, Ontario, Canada, achieved $14,760 from a buyer in Italy. It was considered complete and included three tattoo machines, sheets of commercial, hand-drawn and painted designs, pigments and ink, needles, clip cords and more.
“It’s one of the great sheets — maybe the greatest pre-war flash — that was signed and dated by an important Boston tattoo artist,” was Bray’s comment to us in reference to a framed hand-painted sheet of tattoo designs by Ed Smith (1868-1930). The 19-by-13½-inch sheet was purchased by a buyer, new to Bray, for $12,800.
“Banners of tattooed people are hard to find,” Bray said, so he was happy to have an oil on canvas sideshow banner showing Betty Broadbent, one of the most prominent tattooed persons who was, in 1981, the first person inducted into the Tattoo Hall of Fame. Attributed to Snap Wyatt (Florida, 1905-1984), the 106-by-116-inch banner found a new home with an American buyer, for $11,070. Other banners in the auction included two by Fred Johnson: a circa 1940 “Half Human Half Beast” ($1,845) and “Rats in the Henhouse” ($1,599); an unattributed banner advertising “The Newest & Most Unusual Items / For Season 1928” brought $1,536.
“If there was a surprise in the auction, it was in the strength of the photos and ephemera, which are almost rarer than anything else,” Derin Bray said. The son of famous tattoo artist Huck Spaulding consigned pieces from his father’s collection to the auction; it was topped at $9,225 by a 256-piece archive of photos and negatives ($2/4,000).
Bray was delighted to get the collection of Darwin “Huck” Spaulding (1928-2013), a noted tattoo artist who partnered with Paul Rogers to create one of the most well-known companies of tattoo supplies in the world. An archive from Spaulding and Rogers, comprised of 256 total photographs and negatives, some of which had never previously been published, more than doubled its high estimate and sold to a private collector for $9,225. A novelty from Spaulding’s collection was a pendant — custom made from a bear claw and elk tooth and 14K yellow gold — worn in 1979 by Spaulding at the Fourth World Convention of Tattoo Artists & Tattoo Fans in Houston, Texas. It exceeded expectations, making $2,091.
Another collection that contributed to the size and success of the auction was from the Boston shop of Frank Howard (1857-1925), who was described in the catalog as “America’s foremost early tattooed performer and entrepreneur.” A window shade made circa 1905 by Howard, advertising his Boston partnership with Ed Smith (1868-1930), was in poor condition and missing part near its bottom border; despite the imperfections, it topped offerings with a $6,7,65 result. Inclusion in Historic New England’s 2022 show, “Loud, Naked & in Three Colors: The History of Tattooing in Boston” and the accompanying exhibition catalog by Bray and Margaret Hodges, Loud, Naked & in Three Colors: The Liberty Boys & The History of Tattooing in Boston undoubtedly helped drive interest in the shade.
This upright tattoo machine had been owned by “Tattoo Charlie” Geizer and was made circa 1935, stamped “Made by Prof. Chas Wagner New York City” on the front of the frame and “Waters” on the armature bar. A collector new to Bray & Co., drove bidding on it to $6,080 ($1,5/2,500).
Early tattoo machines were in comparatively plentiful supply, with one owned by tattoo artist “Tattoo Charlie” Geizer (1905-1980) leading the category at $6,080. Geizer was another prominent tattoo artist, working from his shop at 421 East Baltimore Street; after his death, Geizer’s wife, Dale, and a protégé, Dennis Watkins, opted to continue his business in the same location. According to the catalog notes, the shop was recognized as the second-oldest tattoo shop in North America. The neon shop sign from Geizer’s shop at 421 East Baltimore Street will be returning to Baltimore and was one of several lots purchased by the Maryland Center for History & Culture (MCHC), for $3,382. The MCHC also purchased for $1,230 a group of 11 account books that presented “a comprehensive record of the people tattooed by ‘Tattoo Charlie’ at his famed 421 East Baltimore shop from 1953-1977.”
Bray achieved what he thought was a record for the business card of a tattoo artist: Walter Maurice Lyons’ (1872-1952) circa 1907 oversize card advertising his shop at 405½ K Street in Sacramento. It sold for $3,690, more than double its high estimate.
Bray & Co., will sell Americana on September 21 and expects to have another auction focused on Tattoo, Circus, Sideshow & Curiosities in 2025.
Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For information, 603-427-8281, info@brayco.com or www.brayco.com.
