Collotype

Smiles on postcards from the early 1900s are rather rare, possibly because most portraits required the sitter to stay still for many seconds while the exposure was made, especially in the 19th century when most portraits were struck and re-purposed…

An exceptionally well-reserved postcard, with the deep blue of the water reflecting how these early color postcards appeared as jewels to consumers who had not seen printed color images so widely and inexpensively available until shortly after 1900.

Akbar started building his own tomb at Sikandra, but it was completed by his son Jehanghir in 1605. Although it said that a central dome is missing on this edifice, it remains one of the most exquisite of Mughal gates.

Nestor Gianaclis, like D. Macropolo & Co., another Greek-owned firm, was not primarily a photographer so much as a Greek tobacco merchant whose Calcutta office also issued collotype picture postcards and photographic prints in the early 1900s.

Likely the main ascent from the plains up to Conoor and onward to Ooty, the ascent into the Nilgiris, and today better known as Kallar Ghat/the Conoor Ghat Road.

The word "bawarchi" for cook apparently entered Hindi via Urdu from classical Persian. "Chi" is a common Persian suffix meaning "a person who does or is associated with" a type of work.

Sher Garhi Palace was a royal residence and power center on the banks of the Jhelum in Srinagar. IConstruction began in the late 18th century under an Afghan governor, with many alterations in the 19th century including the neo-classical facade…

[Original Italian] La Birmania pifforesca. Zaffera con casa galleggiante. [end]

This card was published by an Italian missionary society, L'Insituto Delle Missioni Estere di Milano.

Hindu woman wearing a white sari. Getting the shades and printing correct, especially the white, on this card would have required great skill, and apparently was done by the leading early German postcard printer Knackstedt and Roder.

The Pakistani poet Daud Kamal (1935-1987) has a poem entitled Water-Carrier:

More patches on his clothes
than on the empty goatskin
slung across his shoulder.
Like the others
he waits his turn
at the Municipal tap.