An Indian Actress
A startling image of an Indian actress, carrying a bow in one hand, perhaps from the play she is acting in. But is it a she?
Bombay Mumbai
Music
[Verso, handwritten] "Oct. 24, 1915. My dear Annie, Do you think you could play this instrument? The music is very weird but I suppose they think it is nice. I don't!
Coolie with his Basket
A postcard by the great Indian painter M.V. Dhurandhar illustrating an Englishwoman looking over a coolie offering his services with an empty basket. Note the cleverly positioned Indian woman with a basket on her head in the background.
The message
A Cobbler
An early postcard that blends photography, the collotype printing process and colorization to produce what the Germans called a "Lichtdruck" or "light print" that resembles a painting.
D. Billimoria and Sulochana
One of early Indian cinema's most famous silent and sound film actors, Dinshaw Billimoria, shown here with his favorite co-star and romantic lead, Sulochana (also known as Ruby Myers). The two made a number of silent films together, some of which
Parsee Ladies at Seaside
Dhurandhar and other J.J. School students spent so much time sketching at the beach on Marine Drive, they could hardly have failed to pick-up a sight like this. The daughter in Parsee Ladies at Seaside is even more Westernized than her mother.
Smoking Hookah
A distinctly colored postcard, with the pinkish mud offsetting the green grass and white garb of the smoker. Note the little boy and half-hidden woman watching from the hut.
A Bania Lady
A beautiful example of colorization, with the rich brown of wood and skin set off against the black and white original studio backdrop. On the back, one owner has pencilled in "Hindu Bourgeois."
Gosavi (Ascetic)
A very early postcard printed in India. Gosavi is a Marathi word that refers to someone who has renounced worldly pleasures and wears garments of the "brick-dust" color shown here.
Bengalee Babu
Another classic, empathetic Dhurandhar portrait that seems to capture well Hobson Jobson's (1903, p. 44) definition: "BABOO , s. Beng. and H. Bābū [Skt. vapra, 'a father']. Properly a term of respect attached to a name, like Master or Mr., and
