Description
Antique Police "Billy Club" Belonging to Huck Spaulding
(America, 19th century)
Turned hardwood nightstick with decorative braided cord owned by "Huck" Spaulding (1928-2013) and kept within arm's reach of his tattoo chair.
Provenance: From the collection of Darwin "Huck" Spaulding (1928-2013).
Huck Spaulding
Tattooing is an art whose practitioners have always been colorful—literally and figuratively. Darwin "Huck" Spaulding—outdoorsman, speed demon, skilled tattooer, and creator of the world's largest tattoo supply empire—stands out even among this flashy crowd. Bray & Co. is pleased to offer a collection of rare items documenting his extraordinary life and career.
Spaulding (1928-2013) spent his early years roaming the woods of upstate New York, trapping and hunting the abundant game there. His exploits earned him the nickname Huck, for the boy adventurer Huckleberry Finn. It also earned him, at age 18, New York state's fox-trapping championship. As a young man, Huck's love of adventure drew him to the visceral thrill of car racing—culminating later in two years of competition in the NASCAR Grand Nationals.
By Huck's account, an old-timer from Schoharie, New York introduced him to tattooing when he was about 19. More experience came from his service in the Merchant Marines and the US Army, where he served for a year in Korea. He was honorably discharged in 1949 and returned home to marry Josie, his childhood sweetheart. Huck opened a tattoo shop in their new home in Catskill, New York to supplement his fur-trapping income, but soon realized that tattooing was the more lucrative endeavor.
The color, camaraderie, and thrill of the carnival sideshow circuit undoubtedly appealed to Huck, and he found success there. He and Josie joined Captain Jeffrey's Congress of Oddities in the early 1950s—Huck as a tattooer and assistant sideshow manager and Josie as a ticket-taker—and also traveled with O. C. Buck Shows out of Troy, New York. Huck ultimately combined his woods and showman skills to create a signature Wildlife Show, a menagerie of raccoons, porcupines, birds, a bobcat, muskrats, and an exotic spider monkey.
At the recommendation of legendary machine builder Bill Jones, Huck settled in Jacksonville, North Carolina with his family, where he snagged the best location in town—713 Court Street. Just a block away, tattoo duo Paul Rogers and Lathan Connelly were about to lose their shop to the wrecking ball, and Connelly had plans to return to his home in Virginia. Rogers saw Huck doing a brisk business, recognized his ambition, and realized that he had found a new partner. Under Rogers's tutelage, Huck underwent an artistic and professional transformation—he became an adept builder of tattoo machines and a master of the Coleman-style of tattooing.
In 1956 the partners went into business in earnest, establishing Spaulding & Rogers mail order tattoo supply company. The firm took off; within a few years Spaulding & Rogers acquired Owen Jensen's Los Angeles supply business. Rogers, with his blessing, shortly left this new venture to Huck, but the two men enjoyed each other's company and continued to tattoo together for years. They developed an efficient system in which Huck did the outlining and Rogers the filling and shading. Their shop was busy—and the source of many iconic tattoos, including the crucifixion back piece on Ohio tattoo artist Al Schiefley, a work reportedly completed in a single sitting of 7 hours and 40 minutes. They also famously decorated their apprentice Dave "D. C." Paul with a stunning Battle Royale back piece that later graced their Christmas Card. D. C. Paul eventually took charge of Spaulding & Rogers's Fayetteville shop.
Jacksonville tightened the reins on tattooing for a brief time in 1958, prompting Huck and Rogers to chase the oil rig workers' ready cash in Anchorage, Alaska. They tattooed in a makeshift stall in the Sportsman's Club arcade, across from the Anchorage bus station, before returning to Jacksonville. Huck and Rogers spent the first years of the 1960s on the road, tattooing from Fayetteville, North Carolina to Washington, DC, in Portsmouth and Norfolk, Virginia, and with Tony Cambria in Newark, New Jersey.
The Spaulding & Rogers team ended its run in 1962. Rogers moved to Jacksonville, Florida, where he continued to build the best machines in the trade. Huck returned to family in upstate New York, opening a shop on Broadway in downtown Albany. A block fire in 1967 forced him to tattoo from a rented room in Voorheesville, New York. All the while, he and Josie ran their tattoo supply business from the flood-prone basement of their home—often sloshing about in rubber boots to fulfill their orders.
In the 1970s, Huck entered a new era of successful enterprise. He bought and cleared land on the outskirts of Voorheesville, where he built a new shop and space for his mail order operations. During this decade Huck achieved an unprecedented level of quality and professionalism in both tattooing and sales, establishing new standards for the trade. As his supply business grew exponentially, Huck found time in 1971 to ink a spectacular Coleman-style dragon on the back of his friend and fellow tattoo artist Thom DeVita; he adorned Canadian tattooer Bill Freeman's broad back with a colossal, intricate Fu Manchu design.
Huck applied the same aesthetic and all-in commitment to quality to his supply business. His catalogs became lush productions, enhanced with cover art by leading tattoo artists like Ed Hardy, Sailor Jerry Swallow, and Don Nolan. These publications, which offered budding tattoo enthusiasts both the inspiration and the tools they needed to pursue their aspirations, brought tattooing into popular culture as never before. Huck and Josie's basement enterprise had become the largest supplier of tattoo equipment in the world. While old-timers may have grumbled at the crowds of perceived interlopers, many of today's masters of the art began their careers on Spaulding & Rogers equipment.
Huck passed his expertise and business on to his family. In retirement he returned to his lifelong passion for the thrill of the chase, collecting fast cars and hunting big game. Darwin "Huck" Spaulding died in 2013, leaving the tattoo world a legacy of exceptional artistry and popular appeal that continues to this day.
