Lot 001 - Antique Cabinet Card Photograph Of Thomas Sidonia “The Tattooed Boy” At Age 21, Photographed By Charles Eisenmann, New York, Custom Framed With Visible Verso Inscription And Clear View Of Early American Traditional Tattoos, 13" x 15"

Antique cabinet card photograph of Thomas Sidonia, known professionally as “Sidonia The Tattooed Boy,” photographed at age 21 by noted New York photographer Charles Eisenmann. Sidonia is shown seated on an ornate faux-concrete studio prop, holding a ball-topped baton and wearing fringed shorts, socks, and shoes. His extensive early American traditional tattooing is crisply visible from the chest downward. The reverse bears a period handwritten inscription reading “Sidonia Tattooed Boy, age 21.”

The photograph has been custom framed in-house in an ornate gilded gesso frame with an oval window, floated behind a black mat under glass. A second glass panel on the back allows full view of the verso inscription.

Condition notes: a vertical crease runs from the top center downward, with a slim but visible slit at the center where the white of the photo board shows through; scattered surface wear and discoloration mostly limited to the mounting board. Despite this, the image remains strong, and Sidonia’s tattoos are sharply distinguishable.

A rare, early portrait of one of the most famous tattooed performers of the late 19th century, taken by the premier sideshow photographer of the era.

Biographical Summary of Thomas Sidonia
Source: Bedford Museum & Genealogical Library, article by Noelle Woodcock.

Thomas Sidonia (born March 4, 1869, Nova Scotia) was widely billed as “the most tattooed man in the world” and was among the first performers to be electrically tattooed. He built a long career as a circus entertainer, performing as a tattoo attraction and as a slack-wire artist, unicyclist, and vaudeville novelty act under the title “The Great Sidonia.” He worked for major companies including Washburn & Arlington, Ringling Brothers, Bob Hunting, and J.H. LaPearl, and was frequently praised in newspaper accounts from 1900–1903 for his exceptional wire-walking and trick bicycling performances.

Sidonia immigrated to the United States around 1885 and traveled extensively for his circus work. Ship manifests record him arriving from France in 1904 as an “artist,” and again from Liverpool in 1913, likely returning from performance tours. By 1920 and 1930 he is documented living in Pennsylvania, working variously as a salesman, hairdresser, and mural painter. Later in life he resided at the Elks National Home in Bedford, Virginia, where he continued painting; his murals—including a George Washington portrait and a 1942 painting titled “On the Eve of Discovery”—still survive in local collections. He also helped originate the Home’s now-famous Christmas light displays in the 1950s. Sidonia died June 14, 1954, at age 85, and is buried in the Elks Rest section of Oakwood Cemetery.