The London based publisher F. Hartmann, best known as an indigo merchant, also claimed to be the first British-based publisher of postcards of India as early as 1903.
The postmark is illegible, but the message to S. Cook, Esq. Black Friars, Meadown View Road, Plympton, S. Devon, England reads: "Saw Mt. Everest at dawn today it was a lovely sight, have to get up early 3.30 before the mists come.
Many postcards speak to the physical labor that allowed residents of hillstations to warm their homes and cook their food, often leading men and women with permanently bent backs.
A very early Tuck's postcard of India, and likely among the earliest of Darjeeling. Made from an albumen photograph by Bourne & Shepherd, whose credit is visible on the bottom right of the photograph.
[Original caption] A Lama Beggar. The Lamas are priests of the great Buddhist religion. There are many different grades, from the two chief Lama Popes down to the Lama beggar, an interesting and picturesque figure, who tramps the country barefooted…
Note how every frame is labelled and the entire ensemble unusually titled "Recollections," which was only occasionally used on multi-view postcards, with "Greetings" the standard term.
A very early "Greetings from" postcard composed of no less than five different images, including one of the "Divinity Dance by Lamas" in the bottom left panel.
