Calcutta
[Original] Durga - Great Eastern Hotel - Telegraph Office - Snake Charmers [end]
A card from the earliest known series of Calcutta postcards by the Austrian photographer W.
Color
A young Hindu married couple.
This card was made primarily for domestic audiences as the Hindi title, and secondary English title cleverly tucked into a corner vertically suggest. Note how the remnants of another postcard from a skewed cut is visible at the top.
Lahore. Char Boorji.
The Chaburji gateway is the entrance to a lost Mughal garden. Apparently built around the 1640s, its construction is linked to the Mughal Emperor Akbar's daughter, Zebunnissa Begum.
Safder Jang Tomb. Delhi.
The low angle of this splendid postcard of the mid-18th century tomb of Nawab Safderjung seems to widen at the bottom and reach towards the viewer. Note the two figures in white, almost invisible against the whitewash of the pedestal.
R.A.T.A.R.F.A. Meerutt
A particularly striking view of a colonial bungalow in northern India. Meerut was home to a major army garrison and cantonment during the Raj and in modern times. This card was in an embossed postcard frame. All attempts are decoding R.A.T.A.R.F.A.
Udaipur City. View of the palace.
[Original caption] Udaipur City. View of the Palace. Udaipur is the marvelous picturesque capital of the state of Mewar founded in the 16th century. The city is surrounded by a bastioned wall, protected on the W. by a beautiful lake. N. and E.
Lawrence Military Asylum, Sanawar, Kasauli
Founded in 1847 by Sir Henry Lawrence, what is now the Lawrence School is a prestigious boarding school that serves much of the country's elite and the middle-class aspiring to join that elite.
Zuhoorun (Nautch-Girl).
Dancing girl of India on a popular Tuck's painted postcard, probably signed by G.E. McCulloch. Nautch or nach, a word used in several languages of North India, is an Indian term for "dance", and indicates several forms of popular dancing styles.
Calcutta. Burmese Pagoda Eden Gardens.
Lord Dalhousie brought the Burmese Pagoda from Prome in Burma in 1854 as a token of conquest of an area that was ruled as part of the British Raj.
Colombo. Katamaran, Native Fishing Boat
[Original caption] Catamaran-Native Fishing Boat. These, as well as the canoes of Ceylon, are very picturesque. The fine human figures of the crew, the dark sails against a deep blue sky, would give an artist continual delight.
