Knife grinders are a vanishing craft. Doing this at home before electric knife sharpeners was difficult. Knife grinders would take their sharpening wheels from door to door and take care of the problem.
An earlier postcard view, before divided backs
One can see the rapid transformation of the postcard from a time when messages where only allowed on the front, as in this card.
This unnamed Rajah was a popular postcard subject, in color and black and white. Note how well the image was colorized during the half-tone printing process which had just started to become more widely used for postcards based on photographs.
As competition among postcard publishers intensified between 1905 and 1910, each tried to outdo the other with new formats offered by the German printers who served much of the Indian market.
Addressed to Mr. R.W. Leming, 3 Duff St., Poplar, London and postmarked Calcutta G.P.O. August 5, 1913: "A/S Inverie What do you think about this. I hope this will find you all well. It is very hot here. Will send some more later. Kind regard to all.
The summer palace of the Mewar royal family was constructed in the 1740s Maharana Jagat Singh I. Note the exemplary arrangement ny the photographer of the boats in front, as if part of the palace architecture.
Around the turn of the century, women of Bombay were on the cutting-edge of popular fashion, photographed in studio settings like this one and extensively postcarded.
![Bara Bazaar. Hyderabad, Dn. [Deccan]](https://www.paperjewels.org/sites/default/files/styles/square_thumbnail/public/slides/bara-bazaar_0.jpg?itok=260YDe5R "Bara Bazaar. Hyderabad, Dn. [Deccan]")
A lovely postcard were the energy flows outwards towards the viewer from the Char Minar, the city's landmark mosque built in 1591.
A candid Delhi shot by a little-known photographer.
A postcard which represents something of the uneasy relationships during the colonial period. The ancient banyan tree is hemmed in by fencing and benches. Two bearded British men are enjoying a drink under its shade.
