A Persian Gypsy Woman and Her Children
[Original caption] A Persian Gypsy Woman and Children. These itinerant vendors of small articles travel far and wide through India, often pretending also to occult knowledge.
Halftone
Punjab Rose
An impressive studio shot that lays bare the artifice used to make these images work: the painted backdrop with visible border, the matching design shoes and carpet, the desk or piano the woman's arm is resting on, surrounded by an oval frame common
The Huzuri Bagh, Lahore
A beautiful example by one of the premiere Lahore coloured postcard publishers, Peshawar-based D.C. Mehra and Sons.
Gwalior Fortress. Colossal Figure 62 Ft. High.
[Original caption] Gwalior Fortress-Colossal Figures. Gwalior Fortress stands stern and strong 300 feet above the town.
Coolie with his Basket
A postcard by the great Indian painter M.V. Dhurandhar illustrating an Englishwoman looking over a coolie offering his services with an empty basket. Note the cleverly positioned Indian woman with a basket on her head in the background.
The message
Down in the Mouth
A faux pre-written postcard which gives some sense of the life at least as experienced by British soldiers in cantonments, even while holding ale in one hand and a pipe in the other: "Dear _____, I am feeling "down in the mouth." India does not agree
Indian Dancing Girl
One of the more elaborately framed and coloured portraits of a nautch girl.
Historic India. Ravages of White Ants. Beams Eaten Out.
An unusual "natural history" postcard from Tucks.
[Original caption] Ravages of White Ants: beams eaten out. The insect tribes of India may be said to be innumerable.
Bearer
Although Hobson Jobson (1903, p. 77) defines Bearer as, besides a palanquin carrier, also as "b. (In the Bengal Presidency) a domestic servant who has charge of his master's clothes, household furniture, and (often) of his ready money.
Best Christmas Wishes 1908
A 101 years later, a look at a Christmas card from a major Calcutta retailer.
