This postcard actually shows a young Gohar Jan (right) and her mother Malka Jan, both famous dancers and singers. Gohar Jan was the first recorded Indian artist, by the Gramophone company in 1904. She can be heard on YouTube.
This image was used
This so-called "chromo-collotype" card was created by running an image derived from a black and white photograph through multiple color runs, after each color had dried, creating rich and translucent images.
One of the earliest postcards of India, Calcutta, published by W. Rossler, a German or Austrian photographer in the city in 1897. Lithograph, Court sized, Printed in Austria. Undivided back.
Note how nicely the stamp is positioned in line with the woman's arms; according to the so-called "language of stamps" current at the turn of the century, this stamp position might mean the sender is asking "Do you love me?" or even "Your love
When this card was first published from London, The Picture Postcard and Collector's Chronicle, a magazine that catered to collectors, businessmen and and aficionados of the new medium, hailed it as a “a fascinating dancing girl from Benares” (Jan.
Compare to the halftone color version of the same photograph.
A lavishly illustrated studio postcard; note how the presumably dancer is displaying her ghungroos on her ankles.
Compare to the black and white collotype of the same photograph.
One of the earliest postcards of a "dancing girl" printed in India. Nach [or Nautch] women among the most popular subjects of early postcards of India.
The great Hindi/Urdu writer Munshi Premchand describes, from the point-of-view of Suman, the heroine of his first novel Sevasadan, the complex view she has of Bholi, a courtesan living across the street from her:
"Suman had never met any courtesans,
[Verso] Postmarked Mount Road, Madras, 17 Sep. 1903 at 11:30 a.m. and addressed to Miss Olive McMillan, St. Augustine's, Cliftonville, Margate, England.
[Recto] "16/9/03 With Many Salaams from Mother."
