Own an authentic piece of early American tattoo history with his original hand-painted flash sheet. This beautiful original vintage tattoo flash sheet is a beautiful one-of-a-kind example of classic early American tattoo art.
Painted in the 1920s, probably somewhere on New York City's Bowery -- the birthplace of American Tattooing -- this beautiful one-of-a-kind original flash sheet from one of tattoo history's most important venues comes from the extensive collection of world famous tattoo artist, Jonathan Shaw.
While we have been unable to ascertain the name of its artist, or any other specific information as to its exact origins, we do know that it was acquired by Shaw together with a large collection of antique tattoo designs from New York's infamous Bowery tattoo studios.
Judging by the Union Jack and other British themes seen on other sheets by the same artist, this artist possibly came from somewhere in the British empire. Many of the original Bowery tattoo artists were European, and specifically British, immigrants, and there was a lot of traveling the 7 seas going on with tattooists back in the day - as evidenced by the fact that this sheet appears to have been taken from a traveling tattooist's portable catalogue book.
It's also easy for the trained eye to spot the unmistakable influence of the legendary British tattoo-master, George Burchett, leading us to speculate that this sheet and others like it may have been produced by one of Burchett's apprentices, or a close associate. Born in Victorian England, Burchett was famous for tattooing sailors, soldiers, famous carnival sideshow performers of the day, and distinguished members of European royalty during his career. which spanned the turbulent years between the reign of Queen Victoria to the ascendancy of Queen Elizabeth. His distinctive talents and widespread popularity, combined with his enthusiastic interest in the cultural history of his profession was instrumental in propelling tattooing through the 20th century to where it is today.
This extraordinary sheet, and others like it by the same hand, also seems to have possibly originated in Denmark, judging by a rubber stamp seen on the back of other sheets by the same artist - eventually ending up in one of New York City's many rough-and-tumble Bowery tattoo parlors.
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NOTE: Original antique tattoo flash sheets like the one shown here have been increasing in value at an extraordinary rate over the last 10 years. And with the growing interest in tattoo art in the mainstream art world, there is no end in sight - making this a very solid investment for the forward-thinking collector. Bottom line: there's only so much of this kind of priceless artwork in existence - and they ain't making no more! Soon enough they will all be unobtainable and sitting in museums.
All reasonable offers will be considered and promptly responded to. Thank you!