Curious Craft. Catamaran, Madras
Catamarans are one of the first types of boats and the earliest users of catamarans were apparently fishermen living on the southern coast of Tamil Nadu; the word itself is of Tamil origin.
Undivided back
Road Sweeper
This finely lithographed card by Clifton & Co. was one of the their most popular images, and produced in multiple black and white formats. Originally from a photograph, this colored version would have required multiple print runs.
River Ravi & Bridges of Boats, Lahore
Boat bridges were common in the 19th century; not only the Ravi at Lahore, but the Hooghly in Kolkata, the Indus at Attock were all traversed by ancient boat bridges that rose or were washed away by floods, but could easily be managed and repaired.
Bombay
An early Italian or French postcard celebrating or advertising the city of Bombay. It also features a bicycle, then becoming popular in the city.
Fruit Seller
Note the rich character on this man's face in an image by M.V. Dhurandhar, one of India's most exceptional and prolific early 20th century painters and postcard artists.
Sent to Master E.
Jumma Masjid Bombay
Another exuberant, deftly rendered very early postcard by Paul Gerhardt, chief lithographer at the Ravi Varma Press in Bombay. Note the simply drawn mosque minarets, the colors that pull you in while the cart pushes out into the foreground space.
Golden Temple, Umritsar
This postcard is probably among the earliest of the Golden Temple in Amritsar, given the undivided back, and Clifton's role as one of the earliest all-India postcard publishers. It is probably from a 19th century albumen print.
This card was sent
Lahore, Zamzama Gun
The gun in front of Lahore Museum that was made famous in Rudyard Kipling's novel Kim which begins "He sat, in defiance of municipal orders, astride the gun Zam-Zammah on her brick platform opposite the old Aijab Ghar–the Wonder House, as the natives
Toddy Drawers
Toddy or palm wine as made from sap collected by climbers like this one in little pouches; fermentation was so fast in the humid air that a mildly alcoholic drink could be had in a few hours.
A Parsee Lady
Parsis in India originally came from Iran (Persia), and Parsi ladies were among the first Indian women to have had an active public life, no doubt helped by a high literacy rate in the community (there is a postcard or letter in the woman's hand).
