Rake House

We're a small press with big ideas.

After years of collecting, researching, and writing about tattoo history and other topics off the beaten path, we're turning our labor of love into beautiful books, expertly crafted inside and out.

11/09/2025

Auction Alert! Tomorrow, Sunday, Nov. 9th, is the big day. This ca. 1945 sheet of flash by “Dainty Dotty” Jensen (1909-1952) will cross the block with 100 other rare sheets of tattoo flash and related artifacts from the personal collection of Tom Christopher. This is your chance go buy flash from by old master. Register and bid with Brayauctions. This event kicks off at 12PM EST.

07/25/2024

A selection of Huck Spaulding’s jewelry collection featured in the latest print catalog. The man had good taste!

07/22/2024

Wearable history! This belt buckle was custom made for pioneering tattoo artist and supplier Huck Spaulding (1928-2013), ca. 1975. It is one of many items from his personal collection included in our latest print catalog. Order your copy today!

07/18/2024

“Bend it right. Speed comes later!” – Ralph Jefferson

Only 232 copies left! The new catalog is beyond packed with some of the coolest tattoo artifacts you’ve ever seen, including the original neon sign from “Tattoo Charlie” Geizer’s (1905-1980) famed shop above the Midway Bar in Baltimore, ca. 1940-1960. It had been in storage for nearly 50 years, so we took it to our friends at , who fitted it with a fresh transformer. It lights like a champ!

Incidentally, the day this sign came into their shop, a retired glass bender from Baltimore had stopped in. He learned the craft from Ralph Jefferson (1921-1993), who had the only neon shop on “The Block” for many years and was quite likely the person who made Charlie’s sign. Ralph’s glasswork advice was “bend it right - speed comes later.”

07/17/2024

Our second installment of The Tattoo History Catalogue is finally available! There are 100 more items this year, including the collections of several pioneering tattoo artists. We printed a small run of these, so grab it while you can. www.rakehouse.com

05/16/2023

Our new book Late of the Guards: Tattoo Designs by Ben Corday has finally arrived and is ready to ship! It's been a while since we closed preorders, so please drop us a line if your address has changed. Thanks for sticking with us on this one. The book is our best yet. www.rakehouse.com

02/15/2023

One of the coolest discoveries to come out of our work on Boston is little-known tattoo artist Frank Harrington. He painted this sheet around 1935. Grab your copy of the book to see more of his work.

01/30/2023

Corday Update!

Thank you to everyone who preordered our new Ben Corday book. We were hoping to deliver it by February, but there have been a few scheduling setbacks and it is now expected to ship mid-May. We apologize for the delay, but promise it will be worth the wait. A lot of care and attention went into making this one. Thank you for your patience!

Individual copies of the book are sold out from our website. We have 9 copies left, which are only available in a bundle set.

12/12/2022

Get your copies in time for Christmas! This only applies to domestic orders for Floating West and Loud, Naked, & in Three Colors. The Corday book ships Jan/Feb and is sold out except for in the handful of book bundles available on our website. Thanks!

12/02/2022

Last day to preorder. This book will soon be hard to find.

11/30/2022

Another favorite from our new book by . The devil playing a banjo, painted by Ben Corday, Los Angeles, ca. 1918. Preorder ends Friday.

Address

Portsmouth, NH
03801

Telephone

+12036068380

Website

http://www.rakehouse.com/

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