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.
Art for Art's Sake! 