The Chitra Shala Press in Pune was one of the first and most prominent 19th century printers in India, and an early pioneer of lithographic printing in the subcontinent, known for their wall-size prints of Hindu religious scenes, playing cards and
Snake charmers are one of the most common early Indian postcard subjects, and this must be one of the earliest and most beautiful such views. Note the clever use of the palm backdrop to create the illusion of depth, and the rich use of red.
Women of Kashmir pounded grain to remove hard shells and grind it into flour using long wooden poles; those who lived in small boats moored along the banks of rivers sat at the prows while pounding grain.
An unusual lithographic postcard, blind stamped across the entire back "Haji Yusuf Haji Mohammed Pictures, Post-cards and Cutlery Merchant. Grant Road Cross-Lane. Bombay, 7" that suggests this firm may have been the publisher. The exceptional series
[Original caption] A Car Festival. The huge triumphal car has upon it a representation of the deity in whose honour the festival is observed. The car is drawn around the temple precincts by the willing hands of devotees.
This postcard appeared in connection with the publication The Armies of India by Col. A.C. Lovett and Major C.F. MacMunn (1911). Lovett served as illustrator, A. & C.
An early postcard of Kashmir, likely from a Fred Bremner photograph as many other of the firm's postcards of this region were.
[Original caption] The native tribes of India have, since the first occupation of the country by the British, been trained to act as soldiers to guard their own districts.
Kulri Bazaar, Mussoorie almost feels painterly in its alternating pattern light and soft dark fabrics. In the center, his back turned to us, but with no apparent import, is a British man wearing an infamous solar topee, the sartorial logo of the Raj.
One of those postcards with the densest concentration of human life per square centimeter on them.
