An apparently hand-stenciled color card likely made from a photograph at the Ravi Varma Press facilities in Karla, outside Mumbai. Note how carefully everyone, especially the two dancers, are holding their pose in this vibrant frozen moment.
A postcard sent from Bareilly in UP to a woman in France in 1905 shows how the placement of stamps was on the front of a postcard was once itself a performative art.
[Original caption] The Museum. As befitting an important town like Bombay, the Museum is indeed a very fine one and contains many valuable collections. [end]
[Original caption] City Gate. Jeypore , the capital of the protected native state of the same name in Rajputana, is a walled city, entered by a picturesque gateway.
One of the earliest industrial units in Punjab, it was established in 1902 and burned down in 1984. Established by Rai Bahadur Lala Banarsi Dass, it was among the few flour mills in the country before Partition, and a key supplier of flour to the…
[Original caption] Catholic Cathedral, Lahore. Among the many fine buildings in modern Lahore the noble church in the picture is well worthy of notice. The many trees in the vicinity give quite an English appearance.
[Original caption] The Bara Bazaar, Bombay (city). The Bara Bazaar is one of the busiest spots in the city of Bombay, and is as substantial in its industries as it is in appearance.
Another painted postcard by the Anglo-Indian artist Frank Clinger Scallan (1870-1950) whose Kolkata series of nearly a dozen postcards reflects the pleasures of life in what was British India's largest metropolis.
