Smoking Hookah
A distinctly colored postcard, with the pinkish mud offsetting the green grass and white garb of the smoker. Note the little boy and half-hidden woman watching from the hut.
Men
A young Hindu married couple.
This card was made primarily for domestic audiences as the Hindi title, and secondary English title cleverly tucked into a corner vertically suggest. Note how the remnants of another postcard from a skewed cut is visible at the top.
Ceylon Tea Packers
[Original caption] The amount of tea exported from Ceylon annually exceeds 150,000,000 lbs., and about 400,000 coolies from Southern India are employed in the tea gardens.
H.E. Lord Curzon, Shooting from Juhla. Hyderabad Tour
Lord Curzon (1859-1925) served as the Viceroy of India for six years (1899-1905). His wife Mary Curzon, also shown in the juhla, wrote in her diaries about one incident that stayed with her from the Hyderabad tour in 1902: “Captain Wigram fired as it
Native Street Scene N.W. India
[Original caption] A Native Village Street. Although many buildings in India are solid, substantial structures of considerable architectural interest, most of the villages and towns are made up of houses built entirely of wood.
A Native Potter
[Original caption] The Native Potter is a familiar figure in the streets of Indian towns.
Group of Waziris
[Original caption] The Waziris are a native race inhabiting the north-west frontier of India - the province immediately next to Afghanistan.
A Brahmin Astrologer
Taraporevala & Sons was the premiere Bombay bookstore and publisher, stock full of 19th century illustrated magazines and images eagerly bought and saved in trunks by artists like Ravi Varma as inspiration.
An Afridi
[Original caption] The Afridis are an Afghan or Pathan people, numbering about 300,000 inhabiting the mountaneous region south of the Hindu-Kush. They consist of a number of separate clans, often at feud with each other.
Types of Men (I)
This is actually a real photograph postcard of a water colour on paper by M.V. Dhurandhar, part of a series by the artist on the people of Bombay. The recent and first major book on him, M.V. Dhurandhar The Romantic Realist (DAG, 2018) has three of
