A Mountebank
A curious case of an Italian word finding itself stamped upon a postcard of a characteristic type in India (the fakir, in this case a mendacious one). Mountebank is an old word for a charlatan, or salesman of quack medicines.
Mumbai Bombay
Result of an Intrusion
A interesting very early lithographic card from Bombay by the little-known city artist/publisher W. Cooper, who seems to have specialized in the risque postcard (the same woman seems to be the model for A Trysting Place). Two things are particularly
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.
Tatawadha
[Original caption] Jatayu-Vadha: - Ravana, while carrying away Sita, is being attacked by the bird Jatayu, with whom he fights. [end]
Jatayu, the holy bird, lived in Panchavati close to the hut of Rama.
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.
Kashmir Nautch Girl
A postcard that shows off the great detail achievable in the collotype printing process.
Ahmedabad Hindu
An lithographic postcard, published in India, possibly by "Haji Yusuf Haji Mohammed. Pictures, Post-cards & Cutlery Merchant. Grant Road Cross-Lane.
General Post Office
The GPO in Bombay was already the largest post office in India when this card was produced in 1899, with tens of millions of postcards passing through in a city of less than a million.
[Fairey] IIID Crash Bombay
![[Fairey] IIID Crash Bombay](https://www.paperjewels.org/sites/default/files/styles/square_thumbnail/public/slides/raf-crash_0.jpg?itok=Eh_61vhU "[Fairey] IIID Crash Bombay")
[Verso Original handwritten caption] After an argument with the sails of a sampan. [end]
An unusual real photo postcard of the Fairey IIID, an early 1920s British seaplane that "was popular with aircrew but they were difficult to maintain and when
