More “Jotter” Magic!

Walter Hayward Young aka “Jotter” (1868 – 1920) was a prolific English artist who produced many hundreds of seriously good pieces of art for British postcard publishers – Raphael Tuck & Sons; Arthur Burkart & Co., Frederick Hartmann; Boots; Ettlinger & Co., Woolstone Bros., and many others. Nobody has ever produced a catalogue of his work but it must well into four figures at a conservative estimate. As well as the landscape cards there were a large number of comic cards but it is the ones of hotels in Britain and Ireland published by Burkart & Co., London, that attract the biggest interest amongst collectors. The Irish Burkart cards are particularly hard to come by and after several years searching online sale platforms such as eBay/Delcampe and eBid, I finally struck gold recently. As is the nature with these things it’s either a feast or a famine and no less than eight of the rarest cards appeared on eBay at the same time earlier this month. As luck would have have it there were other interested parties but I settled on three cards and was successful – £58.50 but cheap at the price.

Two of the cards, The Rosslare Hotel (now Kelly’s) and the Great Southern Hotel, Waterville, I knew about but a card, hitherto unknown to me, was The Grand Hotel, Greystones (latterly the La Touche). As in many of his paintings his use of dark colours and clouds creates a very dramatic effect.

He was just 52 years of age when he died and although he visited Ireland it’s not known how much of his work was from photographs and how much from site visits. Either way, he has left a magnificent legacy of work for future generations to enjoy.

One that got away….

The night of the 29^th December, 1940, saw one of the largest and most destructive German air raids on London during World War.II. More than 24,000 high explosive bombs and 100,000 incendiary bombs were dropped on the city.

The destruction was enormous and by morning, the premises of the postcard publishers Raphael Tuck & Sons – Raphael House – was a burnt out shell along with much of the city. Records going back seventy-four years and 40,000 or more original pictures and photographs by the best of artists were in ashes.

Ironically, the firm of Raphael Tuck & Sons had been founded by German émigrés and prior to the outbreak of World War.I. had contracted the bulk of their printing business to German firms.

The first evidence that I’ve come across of a work that passed through the firm unscathed has recently come to light.

Robert Finlay McIntyre (1846-1906) a London artist supplied this 1892 view of “The Upper Lake, Killarney” to Tuck’s and the original turned up at auction at Fusco Auctions, Ohio on the 19/7/2017 where, despite its poor condition, it sold for $500.

Obviously Tuck’s didn’t retain all the work of those that supplied them and hopefully where there’s one, there’s more! Sadly though, I don’t expect to see a flood of similar paintings from the likes of Walter Hayward Young “Jotter”, Edgar Longstaffe and Alfred de Breanski.

More about Raphael Tuck & Sons here: Tuck Database