Hindoo Ayahs
An early court-sized card made from an albumen photograph with the studio inscribed in the glass negative at the bottom.
Hobson-Jobson defines "AYAH, s. A native lady's-maid or nurse-maid.
Court sized
Court card or court sized card was the name given to a size of picture postcard, mainly used in the United Kingdom, which were approximately 4.75 x 3.5 inches and predates the standard size of 5.5 x 3.5 inches (Wikipedia).
Hajee Ismail Saits New Sawmill, Kolar Gold Fields
A postcard that celebrates the arrival of a new machine at the Kolar gold fields, 160 miles west of Madras (Chennai). The mill was already described as being powered by electricity in 1902. This postcard by Wiele & Klein in Madras shows how the
Mohamedan Marriage
Some of the most beautiful and rarest early postcards of India are hand-painted, often with penciled titles and the simply printed word "post card" on the back.
Maner Bihar
This unusual, sepia-ish lithographic postcard is probably by Paul Gerhardt at the Ravi Varma Press even though it is not signed by him with the Press imprint.
Taj Mahal. Agra
One of the earliest, if not the earliest postcard to the Taj Mahal.
The Ayah
This postcard shows a nanny with a pram on the “Queen’s necklace” of Malabar beach in Bombay. The artist Dhurandhar and other fellow J.J.
Shoe-lace Hawker
An early Dhurandhar postcard showing, as he was wont to do, the new types springing up in the city of Bombay as office workers and other people wearing Western shoes needed to replace their laces.
Karli Caves
An early court-sized postcard by Paul Gerhardt, chief lithographer at The Ravi Varma Press in - yes - Karli, outside Bombay. The firm moved its premises here in the late 1890s.
A Rajput
A very early lithographic card, published by Gobindram Oodeyram, likely printed in India.
Fruit Seller
Note the rich character on this man's face in an image by M.V. Dhurandhar, one of India's most exceptional and prolific early 20th century painters and postcard artists.
Sent to Master E.
