The Empress Market, Karachi

The Empress Market, Karachi

c. 1904

Nusserwanjee & Co. were one of Karachi's leading firms and earliest postcard publishers. Founded by the Parsi Nusserwanjee R. Mehta in 1879, it was a leading retailer, and owned and co-owned flour, tile, salt, ice and property businesses, with the family making many contributions to the city and its welfare. However, the first seems to have soon exited the postcard business, although its color cards like this one were quite distinctive. The Empress Market, constructed in the 1880s, still stands with the area in front of the tower commemorating Queen Victoria recently cleared, under protest, of small shops in quest of the market's original grandeur.