An oilette, as the Tuck's themselves said, was essentially a miniature oil painting printed in colour, though the image may have been based on a photo.

Raphael Tuck, who was born Tuch, came to London in 1864, with his wife and family, a refugee from the Prussian-Danish war over Schleswig-Holstein. He set up in business as a furniture dealer and picture framer moving onto photography in the 1870s. Later the firm produced Christmas and greetings cards but they were not pioneers of the postcard.

The founder retired in 1879 and his son Adolph continued the business. In 1893 the firm won the Royal Warrant which appears on the back of the card published today. Tuck's used the phrase "Art Publishers to their Majesties, the King and Queen". They were referring to Edward VII and Queen Alexandra so this means the card, the image of which is before you, was printed between 1901 and 1905, the latter year being the year it was posted.

The picture is, therefore, just over 100 years old. We do not know the name of the artist but the card was given the number 7213 and the town located as Burnley. Something else, not known by me at least, is whether there were any other images of Burnley published in the oilette series. It strikes me as odd that the artist should have chosen, though it might be regarded as characteristic of parts of the town, a location away from the centre of Burnley.

In the bottom left corner of the card you will see the location is given as Finsley Alley. With a name like that there can be no doubt about where Finsley Alley was, but it is not named on my map of Burnley for 1910. A little searching through the appropriate Commercial Directories confirms my suspicion is well founded. Finsley Alley was off Finsley Gate, between Cooper Street (which is still with us) and Fell Street.

What interested me when I first saw today's picture was whether it was an accurate depiction of the street. Again, a little research gives me the confidence to be able to report that it is. The large building in the background, left, is shown on the map of 1910 as a warehouse. It could have been the premises of Richard Snape, a waste paper dealer.

To the right you can see a number of houses. The map indicates there were six dwellings here and five more (not fully shown) on the left in front of the warehouse. However, in the 1883 Directory, though the alley is mentioned, no residents are listed. In 1914 the same is the case, though we know that, at the entrance to Finsley Alley, but in Finsley Gate, was the grocer's shop (number 27) of John William Newsham and the premises of William Vernon, a hairdresser at number 25, and B. D. Cioccio, an ice-cream dealer at number 23. Interestingly, in 1883, number 23 was occupied by someone else with a foreign name, an Augustine Podesta, a brush dealer.

If I had to quibble about the authenticity of the postcard it would be that the houses in the background, though there were some in Stanley Court in this location, may not have been visible from the place the artist chose to paint the picture. The largest building here was Pletts' Borough Brewery which was in Stanley Street. I am pleased Tuck's produced this postcard of Finsley Alley. It reminds us of a long forgotten part of town and gives us a brief insight into the way of life of a few of the town's residents of just over 100 years ago.

However, why this location was chosen is something of a mystery. One might ask the question about who might buy such a card? The answer might be located in the fact the purchaser was in Manchester, on May 10th, 1905, when the card was posted to an address in Ealing, London. Was this card intended to be representative, not of Burnley, but of a southerner's view of a Lancashire mill town?