Divided back, Real Photo Postcard, unused. Signed. Copyright. Series or number:  6956. Photographer and publisher:  Walter Scott, Bradford, West Yorkshire, UK. Circa 1910 – 1930s.

Price:  $15.00

Link Extinguisher at York

Nice publisher logo on this one (the publisher’s initials). Walter Scott was a Bradford, Yorkshire, UK photographer. We found a listing for him in that city’s directory in 1912 at 2 Barkerend Road; an ad for him in a London newspaper in 1924; and another Real Photo card by him on eBay, with a postmark of 1932. So, estimating 1910 – 1930s for the date manufactured for ours.

The subject of our postcard, the link extinguisher, would have been notable as something rather uncommon – a remnant of an earlier age, before gas street lamps lit the way. The metal cone-shaped object was used to put out the torch carried by link-boys working the streets and servants of households of the more well-to-do.

Below, a clipping from the Manchester Evening News in 1908, regarding a different residence, also noteworthy because of its link extinguisher:

Sources:  Wm Byles & Sons, Ltd. Post Office Directory, Bradford and District Business Guide, 1912. p. 454.(Ancestry.com UK, City and County Directories, 1766 – 1946).

Link-boy. n.d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Link-boy (accessed July 10, 2024).

“A Link with the Past.”  Manchester Evening News (Manchester, England). December 4, 1908. Friday, p. 6. (Newspapers.com).

Walter Scott photographer ad. Daily Herald (London, England). January 30, 1924. Wednesday, p. 6. (Newspapers.com).

“Yorkshire Bradford BAILDON c1930s RP Postcard Walter Scott.” https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/174238687742. Accessed July 10, 2024.