D G Parker

The St Anne's postcard publisher D G Parker is known to have produced only one postcard although it's probable more will be identified. Very little yet is known about this individual, but their postcard includes their address, which helps a lot: 4 Birchwood Road, St Anne's Park, Bristol, which has been a post office since at least the early 1930s.


Their local postcard is:

Some notes

The photograph was taken in the winter and looks uphill. The deciduous trees that line both sides of the street have been pruned severely giving this picture a rather gaunt appearance which, at first impression, might seem almost macabre. In fact though, the lack of canopy has created a rare opportunity to see all the houses that otherwise would be hidden behind the trees.

Three postmarked copies of this postcard have found their way into the survey so far: two date to the 1950s (both with 2d stamps, showing they were posted before the price increase of 1 Oct 1957), and one in Jan 1960. This grouping of postal dates may not be at odds with the date proposed by the Fishers (around 1940) because the photograph may have been taken a decade before it was published.

The most curious thing about this postcard, something that makes it unique in this Brislington survey so far, is the technique used to print it: rotogravure. That's far from the cheapest available printing process at that time, and is often used for artistic images as it prints both high contrast and soft tones.

Ken Taylor