One of the more elaborately framed and coloured portraits of a nautch girl. Her priceless expression, the jewelry that is only lightly tinted and for that seems more real, the yellow shawl and powder blue all suggest the hand of a master stencil…
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.
A 101 years later, a look at a Christmas card from a major Calcutta retailer. Note the different words used to wish people in the early days of holiday-related cards - "Happy" instead of the now standard "Merry" Christmas, and "Bright" instead of…
Dhurandhar and other J.J. School students spent so much time sketching at the beach on Marine Drive, they could hardly have failed to pick-up a sight like this. The daughter in Parsee Ladies at Seaside is even more Westernized than her mother.
[Original caption] The Durbar Hall. Mysore State palace. The palace is built in Hindu style, the front supported by four fantastically carved wooden pillars.
An early Tuck's painted postcard made to celebrate the 1903 Delhi Darbar. Viceroy Lord Curzon and his wife Mary are atop the elephant, their arrival opened the Darbar.
Another classic, empathetic Dhurandhar portrait that seems to capture well Hobson Jobson's (1903, p. 44) definition: "BABOO , s. Beng. and H. Bābū [Skt. vapra, 'a father'].
Grand Review of Troops held before the Amir of Afghanistan Habibullah Khan at Agra in January 1907 when he was invested by Lord Minto with the Order of the Bath. A. Vivian Mansell & Co. were one of Britain's most high-end postcard publishers.
[Original caption] General View of Ghats, Benares. The landing places leading to the many temples which look down upon the River Ganges, whose waters are held so holy that they can wash away all sin. [end]
