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.
1900-1909
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.
Watching the Pageant, Delhi
[Original caption, Verso] “Watching the Pageant, Delhi. The great Delhi Durbar is known by means of the vernacular press to the inhabitants of the remotest parts of India.
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
Hindoo Ayahs
An early court-sized card made from an albumen photograph with the studio inscribed in the glass negative at the bottom.
Hobson-Jobson defines "AYAH, s. A native lady's-maid or nurse-maid.
Hajee Ismail Saits New Sawmill, Kolar Gold Fields
A postcard that celebrates the arrival of a new machine at the Kolar gold fields, 160 miles west of Madras (Chennai). The mill was already described as being powered by electricity in 1902. This postcard by Wiele & Klein in Madras shows how the
A Jaipur Sardar
Seated on a horse, this Jaipur Sardar wears a traditional dress and looks very bored indeed.
Mohamedan Marriage
Some of the most beautiful and rarest early postcards of India are hand-painted, often with penciled titles and the simply printed word "post card" on the back.
at Mutta, Mohmand Field Force
Graves of British soldiers killed in August 1908 during a British military expedition against Mohamand tribes northeast of Peshawar who had launched a surprise attack against the city on April 24, 1908, fomenting what one British general called a
A Toda House, Its Master and Mistress.
[Original caption] A Toda House _ Its Master and Mistress.
