Snake Charmers
An unusual postcard by an innovative London publisher known for combining different printing and colouring techniques.
Lithograph
An unusual postcard by an innovative London publisher known for combining different printing and colouring techniques.
An early postcard summarizing the value of British Indian coinage, one rupee and below, in silver and copper. One British pound at the time was worth 240 pence, with 1 Rupee worth 16 pence (the 'd' on the card). Another postcard summarized the value
[Original German translated] Buy tea from Hagenbeck's Ceylon Tea.
The main driver of Sri Lanka’s economic growth during the colonial period was the tea industry.
A very early lithographic postcard by Gobindram Oodeyram that seems to have been printed in India. A compelling glimpse of the rural poor in the sprawling state of Rajasthan during what were trying times.
Sir Narayan Ganesh Chandavarkar, an early Hindu reformer and political leader, was born in Karnataka in 1855. He later became vice-chancellor of the University of Bombay where he spent most of his life working as a Justice, activist and reformer.
Taraporevala & Sons was the premiere Bombay bookstore and publisher, stock full of 19th century illustrated magazines and images eagerly bought and saved in trunks by artists like Ravi Varma as inspiration.
Handwritten on the back is this message: "Bombay, March 3, 1903: “Dear little General. This is a picture of the native portion of this city – we do not dare go in it because there are so many cases of plague.
A very early postcard printed in India and signed by the Ravi Varma Press chief lithographer and also painter, Paul Gerhardt. The title "Bakshis[h] Saheb" refers to the call for alms made by beggars.
A rare lithograph from 1907 or beyond. Note the British policeman in side profile, the local constable saluting him. They are nearly the same height. The background reveals itself to be a cutout of the city, the policeman's terrain.
A curious case of an Italian word finding itself stamped upon a postcard of a characteristic type in India (the fakir, in this case a mendacious one). Mountebank is an old word for a charlatan, or salesman of quack medicines.