original vintage sample kobel antique unknown tattooed man tattoo photo 4x5

Description

vintage tattoo kobel sample photo of percy waters 1920s tattooed man frenchie
up for auction is an original and authentic classic vintage original Kobel 4x5 inch "sample" tattoo photo.
Photo in pristine condition.
Bernard Kobel sold unusual photographs, including “HIGHLY TATTOOED MEN & WOMEN”, through a mail order business that he ran for many years in Clearwater, Florida, until 1971. The photos he sold were generally 5X7 inches and are identified by his hand written number, in pencil, on the back of the photo, to catalogue and identify the tattooed person on the front of the photo. These numbers were inscribed in the format of T-X where X was a number such as T-2 and so on. Photos exist that have numbers, in sequence, from T-1 to T-1756 Today these photos are generally referred to as “Kobels” by collectors.
This displayed photo is an original Kobel "example" or "sample" photo, with his original hand written note on the back side, that was developed by Bernard Kobel and not a recent reprint of any kind. This is the note that came with a selection of "sample" files: "Here's a rare one, a huge selection of over 120 genuine original 4x5 tattoo photographs from Bernard Kobel's sample and example files. Back around 1971 when I worked for Bernie a short time, he was getting a bit scattered and disorganized with age, and it wasn't unusual for him to number these smaller prints incorrectly when he was in a rush. Since he had so darn many of them available at any given time, it wasn't necessary or cost effective for us to sit there looking up the right numbers (if Bernie couldn't remember them off hand, and that was happening more frequently...), so we just threw them in a separate pile. Now please understand, these are genuine prints made by Bernie, not copies by somebody else, and they all have Bernie's recognizable T catalog numbers scrawled on the back. The issue here is only that the numbers are wrong! I suppose I could sit down for several days and figure out the right numbers from the catalog lists, but then I'd have to erase or cross out Bernie's original marks, and I'm not sure the next owner will want that. So here they are, a fantastic selection of over 120 Bernard Kobel tattoo 4x5's, in one big lot, just the way they originally left his place long ago."
Buy it now sale...
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note:  prices decreased daily. also i add in a freebie item with your purchase as a thank you.  :)
message me with any questions re shipping, history of items, etc.