A Money Lender

"The stranger unacquainted with conditions in India, and visiting Bombay for the first time, cannot fail to be impressed by an inspection of the huge assortment of books which Messrs D B Taraporevala, Sons and Co find it necessary to keep in hand to meet the growing exigencies of their business," wrote Alistair Macmillan in Seaports of India Ceylon (1928, p. 232). This business soon encapsulated postcards, and the firm produced a wide variety of series, including black and white collotypes covering the whole of India, and a series of lithographs of contemporary types like this money lender. Undoubtedly drawn by an Indian artist, the clear lines, bright colors commanding face and size have much in common with the East India "Company painting" that was in vogue a century previously and whose style carried forward into print mediums as well.