Collotype

An artfully placed stamp gives this card additional character. According to "the language of stamps" then in vogue, a red stamp placed at this ange would mean "I am true to you." In this case, it is likely that a design sense inspired the sender who…

A popular Jaipur postcard shows a woman spinning cotton in front of a traditional door. The colors were applied by hand and with a stencil to a black and white printed postcard, fairly accurately, although drops coming off the wheel on left are…

An exceptionally well put together early advertising postcard. The palm trees around the hotel image extend the real ones inside the frame, the one on the top right seems to jut out from the actual ones.

An unusual coloured collotype by Kashmir's premiere postcard publisher. The pink seems to billow both outward from the frame and upward to the woman's face.

An early view of Bombay by one of its preeminent early postcard publishers. It shows the Rajabai Tower, completed in 1878 on the grounds of the University of Mumbai.

One of the most famous temples in Mumbai, Dwarkadhish Temple, built in 1875, was often referred to as the Monkey Temple because of the figures of monkeys eating bananas on the front.

The word "peon" owes its origin to the Spanish word which means laborer. Although peons in European society were considered somewhat lowly in status, in India at the turn of the century peons were white collar employees who could, over time, rise in…

This 60 foot high gate, still very much in use, was built in the late 18th century by the rulers of Awadh as a copy of the Bab-e-Humayun in Istanbul.

From one of the very first sets of Kashmir postcards published, by the photographer Fred Bremner who made a photographic journey to the principality in 1902.

One of those postcards that can be read, perhaps, as satirical or documentary. Carefully composed in a studio, the priest is patting his tummy, about to enjoy a ladoo, looking the viewer straight in the eye while a thin and meek pupil stares at his…