Greetings from Darjeeling
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.
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.
Although the word "dandy" originally referred to boatmen on the Ganges (Hobson-Jobson, 1906, p.
The photographer S. Singh seems to have specialized in real photographs carefully coloured by hand after printing. The anonymous owner of this card wrote on the back: "Sunrise on the sea of clouds as we watch it touch Mt.
S. Singh likely printed his own postcards from photographs given the hand-titling, often slightly different on each postcard.
An uncommon type of postcard flourished in Darjeeling, with individuals on real-photo black and white postcards carefully silhouetted and then individually hand-painted.
A very early postcard of Mt. Everest, probably printed in 1901 or earlier, by Darjeeling's premiere studio, run by the Austrian Thomas Paar.
A very early postcard of Mt. Everest, possibly the earliest.
Sent to Jerome Steinback, 341–11th St., Portland, Oregon, U.S.A. and postmarked Feb. 14, 1902 in Darjeeling. [Recto] "2/13/02 Our greetings to you from the most beautiful spot in India –
One can only marvel at the early "Greetings from" postcard, the way five photographs are woven into one image with the help of plant motifs, in this case tree branches but often palm trees for Indian images.
Thomas Paar was one of the earliest publishers of Darjeeling postcards, and a longtime photographer with a grand studio in the middle of the hillstation.
"I was carried to and from the hall in a primitive conveyance, called a “dandy”; it consists of a bit of canvas, fastened stoutly to an oblong frame of wood, terminating in a short pole at either end," writes Margaretta Catherine Reynolds, author of