[Original caption] Butterflies and Moths pass through three very distinct stages before they attain the perfect form viz.: 1. The
[Original caption] “Chowringhee, Calcutta. Chowringhee Road runs past the sumptuous edifice of the Bengal Club and the nest residential quarter of Calcutta to St. Paul’s Cathedral.
![Empire of British India and Ceylon [Coins]](https://www.paperjewels.org/sites/default/files/styles/square_thumbnail/public/slides/coins-of-the-raj_0.jpg?itok=58p0u2yD "Empire of British India and Ceylon [Coins]")
A beautiful embossed card showing exchange rates between Indian and European currencies, in those days usually stable for long periods of time.
The H.S.M. in the top left corner stands for Hugo Semmler, Magdeburg, per Helmfried Luers in his The
Smiles on postcards from the early 1900s are rather rare, possibly because most portraits required the sitter to stay still for many seconds while the exposure was made, especially in the 19th century when most portraits were struck and re-purposed
Nestor Gianaclis, like D. Macropolo & Co., another Greek-owned firm, was not primarily a photographer so much as a Greek tobacco merchant whose Calcutta office also issued collotype picture postcards and photographic prints in the early 1900s.
![Eid Mubarak [Eid Greetings]](https://www.paperjewels.org/sites/default/files/styles/square_thumbnail/public/slides/eid-greetings-4_0.jpg?itok=yxvPcehy "Eid Mubarak [Eid Greetings]")
This lavishly illustrated card, embossed in gold outline, was printed in Germany. It shows how European figures and themes were easily repurposed for local holidays.
![India Tea Growers Post Card [back]](https://www.paperjewels.org/sites/default/files/styles/square_thumbnail/public/slides/tea-card-back_0.jpg?itok=zMlAOWq1 "India Tea Growers Post Card [back]")
The back of the Mumtaz-i-Mahal postcard, with an advertising message for tea and the ink stamp of the sales agent.
"In any town in India the European Club is the spiritual citadel, the real seat of the British power, the Nirvana for which native officials and millionaires pine in vain," wrote George Orwell in his first novel, Burmese Days (Chapter 2). First
A triumphal arch erected to commemorate the visit of King George V and Queen Mary in 1911, it was completed in its present form in 1924. The Gateway of India was built in the Indo-Saracenic architectural style, combining multiple design elements and
A thickly embossed and framed postcard, a treatment that seems to be more prevalent among hillstation postcards.
