Manure Dryers, India
[Verso, in pencil] "You think your job is bad?" [end]
Combridge & Co.
Entrance Gate to Secundra Bagh, Lucknow (where 2000 mutineers were killed)
Stormed during the Second Relief of Lucknow, inside the gateway thousands of people were killed in what is sometimes termed a mass killing by British troops, but on this postcard is celebrated as a battle triumph.
Shravak Temple, Girnar
One of the earliest postcards of this collection of Jain Temples which date from roughly the 8th century through 15th century, although there is apparently evidence of the area as a site of pilgrimage from the 3rd century BCE.
Hindu Women Carrying Water
A very early blue-toned postcard from booksellers Cobridge and Co. Sent from Bombay's Sea Post Office, date unclear, to Mr. J. Sherman, 12 Middleton Square, Clerkennell, E.C. London, England: "With fondest love to all from Arthur."
Shatrunjay Temples
An early postcard of the large complex of Jain temples in Gujarat state. There are nearly 1,000 temples in a complex near Palitana in Bhavnagar district which is about 1,000 years old and receives hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.
Group of Indian Fakirs
A very early postcard of fakirs or sadhus, usually shown individually in close-up. Combridge & Co.
A Tea Estate, Darjeeling.
A very early postcard of Darjeeling which nicely represents, visually, the colonial project: a sprawling European building dominating lush grounds while tiny workers pluck away at tea leaves under the watchful gaze of a man in a solar topee.
Government House, Madras
Combridge & Co. were among the earliest publishers of India postcards, a number of which they printed as cyanotypes, a blueish monochrome print popular around the turn of the century. This building still exists, but is now the Madras Club.
