Greetings from John Hagenbeck & Co.
[Original German translated] Buy tea from Hagenbeck's Ceylon Tea.
The main driver of Sri Lanka’s economic growth during the colonial period was the tea industry.
Colombo
The Grand Orient Hotel, Colombo
The Grand Orient Hotel is located on the waterfront in the Fort area of Colombo. The GOH (note initials at top of the building) as it is commonly known, was built in 1837 for British soldiers. In 1875 it was converted into a hotel.
A Buddhist Priest, Ceylon
An unusual keyhole view by Plate & Co. The top part of the front of the card could also have been used for a message. Plate's Art Card series was distinguished for its rich use of color on a slightly embossed or corrugated halftone surface.
Rice Fields, Ceylon
Traditional wet rice farming involves keeping the rice seeds and young plants submerged under water to keep weed infestation at bay until the young rice plants are well established.
Kandy
Elephants Bathing. Queen's Hotel. Temple of the Sacred Tooth.
A multi-image card popular around the turn of the century, where one type of postcard sought to compress as many views of a place into a small space. Murray's Handbook for India, Burma and
A Rodiya Woman Carrying Water, Ceylon
Plate & Co., like many Ceylon-based firms, published semi-nude postcards of women, more common here than even in South India, including this card with a nicely placed purple stamp.
Map of Ceylon showing Her Tea Industry
This beautiful postcard was part of the Ceylon Tea Propaganda Board's (CTRB) evangelizing mission to demonstrate the island's rich tea economy.
Four Kandyan Girls, Ceylon
This image published by The Colombo Apothecaries is apparently based on an original albumen photograph taken in the 1870s or 1880s by the British photographer Charles Scowen who sold his negatives to the firm when he tried to become a planter in
Veddahs. Wild men of Ceylon
This postcard of the original inhabitants of Sri Lanka [Ceylon] was made from a photograph by Charles Scowen, one of the great photographers of the 19th century, as was likely taken in the 1870s.
Madras Merchant, Colombo
An unusual postcard in the use of so much black, which beautifully brings out the portrait of this man, his beard and clothing (black was expensive for printers due to the amount of ink consumed). Due to better economic prospects in Sri Lanka, during
