Shoe Maker
This is a hand-painted postcard from around 1905, rather rare in India compared to, say, China where at the time numerous hand-painted postcards were being sent abroad.
1900-1909
Lahore. The Golden Mosque.
This is an intriguing postcard because the mosque's domes are actually golden, from which it derives its name. Here they are rendered as blue.
Madras, Temple at Tirvalur
[Original caption] Madras, Temple at Trivalur.
Chetty Rice Merchant and Money Lender. Ceylon
[Original caption] The Chettya are one of the trading castes of India whose mercantile activities take them far afield.
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.
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
