A Brahmin Astrologer
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.
Undivided back
The Tatschali Line in Bombay
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 Bhil Couple
Bhils are a name for ancient tribes across a wide swathe of India, including Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan as well as in parts of far-eastern India. Although Hobson-Jobson claimed that "no distinct Bhil language survives" (p.
Basket Bazaar, Madras
The basket bazaar of Madras was renowned for its beautiful wicker work and offered many kinds of basket weavers a platform to show their craft and sell a wide variety of goods.
Shoe Maker
This is a hand-painted postcard from around 1905, rather rare in India compared to, say, China where at the time numerous hand-painted postcards were being sent abroad.
A Mountebank
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.
Hajee Ismail Saits New Sawmill, Kolar Gold Fields
A postcard that celebrates the arrival of a new machine at the Kolar gold fields, 160 miles west of Madras (Chennai). The mill was already described as being powered by electricity in 1902. This postcard by Wiele & Klein in Madras shows how the
Mohamedan Marriage
Some of the most beautiful and rarest early postcards of India are hand-painted, often with penciled titles and the simply printed word "post card" on the back.
Ganges Pagoda
[Original] Souvenir East Indies Pagode des Ganges [end]
Among the earliest postcard series of India, with postally used samples dating back to 1897, according to Ratnesh Mathur, co-author of Picturesque India. Interestingly this is a crude halftone
Bombay Native Bazaar
Bourne & Shepherd are said to have begun their photographic activities in 1840, a year after the invention of photography (see Macmillan, Seaports of India and Ceylon, 1928, p.
