Greetings from Calcutta
An early composite postcard, made up of 27 separate images stuffed into the outline of the letters.
Postcard
A Benares Dancing Girl
Note how nicely the stamp is positioned in line with the woman's arms; according to the so-called "language of stamps" current at the turn of the century, this stamp position might mean the sender is asking "Do you love me?" or even "Your love
A Benares Dancing Girl
When this card was first published from London, The Picture Postcard and Collector's Chronicle, a magazine that catered to collectors, businessmen and and aficionados of the new medium, hailed it as a “a fascinating dancing girl from Benares” (Jan.
English Aircraft Shot Down
A German World War I postcard showing an English aircraft, Punjab 29 Rawalpindi, shot down during combat.
A Baluchi Ploughman
A postcard evocative of the hard toil required to plow fields given the upturned rocky soil. Note the large dog crouching on the right behind the farmer.
Bombay Beauty
Around the turn of the century, women of Bombay were on the cutting-edge of popular fashion, photographed in studio settings like this one and extensively postcarded.
Calcutta Museum
The Calcutta Museum was founded by a Danish botanist, Nathaniel Wallich, in 1814. It shifted to the present site in the 1870s. The architect of Calcutta Museum was W. L.
Taj Mahal Hotel. Bombay.
The Mexican Nobel Prize-winning poet Octavio Paz has a nice description of coming upon the Taj Mohal Hotel by ship for the first time in the early 1950s: "Behind the monument [India Gate], floating in the warm air, was a silhouette of the Taj Mahal
Galta Tank Jaipur
Galtaji is an ancient set of Hindu temples built into rocky hills near Jaipur, nicely captured in this rich early collotype by one of the first all-India postcard publishers.
A Fair Musician
Among the Paul Gerhardt postcards published by The Ravi Varma Press, this seems to be one of the rarer ones. Postally used in Glasgow, Scotland on Nov.
