Happy
A truly multi-purpose postcard by Paul Gerhardt.
before 1900
Shipping on the Hooghly
An example of how the earliest postcards of a place were often design masterpieces. Note how the palm tree merges with the ship masts, and nautical rope and elements carefully surround the whole frame.
India North German Lloyd [Indien Nordeutscher Lloyd Bremen]
![India North German Lloyd [Indien Nordeutscher Lloyd Bremen]](https://www.paperjewels.org/sites/default/files/styles/square_thumbnail/public/slides/india-ship-line_0.jpg?itok=IfmRZ2Ws "India North German Lloyd [Indien Nordeutscher Lloyd Bremen]")
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.
Native Barber
Among the first postcards printed in India, from a lithograph by The Ravi Varma Press' chief lithographer, Paul Gerhardt.
India
This 1892 Singer Manufacturing Co. advertising card for its sewing machines is probably the very first postcard of India, even if technically it was an ad card and not meant to be mailed with a stamp and address visible on the back.
[Original
Calcutta
Kalighat - Burning Ghat - Nautch Girl - Kali
One of the earliest "Greetings from Calcutta" postcards, by the German or Austrian photographer Werner Roessler who was based in the city and had the lithographic card printed in Austria from his
Hindu Temple
An early lithographic postcard, and among the rarer ones, by the artist Paul Gerhardt. It was printed in Karli, outside Bombay, at the Ravi Varma Printing Press where Gerhardt worked as a lithographer.
Greetings from Darjeeling
One can only marvel at the early "Greetings from" postcard, the way five photographs are woven into one image with the help of plant motifs, in this case tree branches but often palm trees for Indian images.
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.
Calcutta
A very early lithographic postcard of Calcutta, postmarked as early as the first half of 1899, and published from Budapest, then part of the Austro-Hungarian empire.
