Water Carrier, Chumba
The Princely State of Chamba appeared on few postcards during the Raj even though its rulers seemed to have good relationships with a number of Punjab-based photographers, including Fred Bremner and John Burke.
The Princely State of Chamba appeared on few postcards during the Raj even though its rulers seemed to have good relationships with a number of Punjab-based photographers, including Fred Bremner and John Burke.
An unusual card which shows a woman, presumably a dancer, looking at the the photograph of a man, a self-reflexive trope that may or may not be recognized by us, who hold the postcard in our hands.
This card, sent by a Mr. Seamus on Dec. 1, 1905 from Kolkata, has a stamp positioned in the top that extends the tilt of the woman's head.
[Original caption, verso] Haunsa Damayanti Sanvada:–The bird Haunsa gave and extols to Damayanti all about Nala, when she is in a garden. [end]
Although a coolie – "a hired labourer, or burden-carrier"(Hobson-Jobson, p. 249) – were at the bottom of the social ladder, and the word is said to originally come from Kolis, a hill-people in the Western Ghats, "whose savagery, filth and general
A very finely hand-tinted postcard, with the indigo closely fitting the cloth, one arm balancing a basket of fruit on the seller's head, the other reaching out to the viewer with a bright red sample.
To be a named "beauty" on a postcard was quite an honor at the turn of the century. Rukmoni is shown here in a studio with colorized backdrop.
An early shipping line advertising card from Germany, from one of the largest late 19th century shipping firms that only in 1970 was merged into Hamburg America Line to form Hapag-Lloyds.
An artfully placed stamp gives this card additional character.
A popular Jaipur postcard shows a woman spinning cotton in front of a traditional door.