Bombay. View of Victoria Terminus & Municipal Building.
[Original caption] Bombay. View of Victoria Terminus & Municipal Building. Bombay is by fat the most European in appearance of all the cities of India.
Bombay Mumbai
Coin-card with Viceroy-Flag of India
An early postcard summarizing the value of British Indian coinage, one rupee and below, in silver and copper. One British pound at the time was worth 240 pence, with 1 Rupee worth 16 pence (the 'd' on the card). Another postcard summarized the value
Bombay-Poona Mail. Great Indian Penninsular Railway
[Original caption] Bombay-Poona Mail. The magnificent train which carries His Majesty's mails between these two towns on the Great Indian Penninsular Railway is one of the finest trains in the British Empire. [end]
A Brahmin Astrologer
Taraporevala & Sons was the premiere Bombay bookstore and publisher, stock full of 19th century illustrated magazines and images eagerly bought and saved in trunks by artists like Ravi Varma as inspiration.
Mr. Bal Gangadhar Tilak
Also known as Lokmanya ("accepted by the people as their leader") Tilak, this Maharashtran was one of the first leaders of the Independence Movement, and someone who used the plague and other injustices of British rule to rally people around the cry
Raja Sandow
P.K. Raja Sandow (1894/5-1943) was one of the most famous silent film actors of India, and later a producer and director as well. Born in Tamil Nadu, he was given the name "Sandow" after a well-known German body-builder of the time.
Types of Men (I)
This is actually a real photograph postcard of a water colour on paper by M.V. Dhurandhar, part of a series by the artist on the people of Bombay. The recent and first major book on him, M.V. Dhurandhar The Romantic Realist (DAG, 2018) has three of
Bombay Police
A rare lithograph from 1907 or beyond. Note the British policeman in side profile, the local constable saluting him. They are nearly the same height. The background reveals itself to be a cutout of the city, the policeman's terrain.
A Mountebank
A curious case of an Italian word finding itself stamped upon a postcard of a characteristic type in India (the fakir, in this case a mendacious one). Mountebank is an old word for a charlatan, or salesman of quack medicines.
Result of an Intrusion
A interesting very early lithographic card from Bombay by the little-known city artist/publisher W. Cooper, who seems to have specialized in the risque postcard (the same woman seems to be the model for A Trysting Place). Two things are particularly
