Washing Day Dhobi Washer Woman
A humorous colonial postcard comparing clothes washing in England and India, part of a larger artist-signed series by the large Kolkata retailer.
Clothes
Indian Hairstyle from Antiquity to the Present
A rare and exceptional early French postcard that attempts to tell the historical story of hairstyles in India, delicately held together by ivory and ornament stretching from top left to bottom right.
A young Hindu married couple.
This card was made primarily for domestic audiences as the Hindi title, and secondary English title cleverly tucked into a corner vertically suggest. Note how the remnants of another postcard from a skewed cut is visible at the top.
Kashmir Nautch Girl
A postcard that shows off the great detail achievable in the collotype printing process.
The "Dhoby"
Hobson Jobson (1903) the great dictionary of Indian words in English, defines "Dhoby, Dobie s. A washerman; H. dhobi [from dhona, Skt. [Sanskrit] dhav, 'to wash.'] In colloquial Anglo-Indian use all over India. A common H. [Hindustani] proverb runs:
An Indian Washing Day
One day was often fixed each week or fortnight for washing a complete household's clothes. The concept of a washing day is said to have reflected a family's social status.
