A Water Carrier, Central Provinces India.
[Original caption] Woman Water Carrier. It is no unusual sight in India to see women performing manual labour, and in some cases they perform harder tasks than the men.
People
Jemadar Mir Dast, V.C., I.O.M.
[Original caption] Jemadar Mir Dast 5th Wilde's Rifles. Won the V.C. for great bravery in the fighting around Ypres. Issued by Order of Her Highness Nandkunverba, C.I. Maharani of Bhavnagar, for the benefit of the War Fund. [end]
From a series of
A Persian Gypsy Woman and Her Children
[Original caption] A Persian Gypsy Woman and Children. These itinerant vendors of small articles travel far and wide through India, often pretending also to occult knowledge.
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.
Punjab Rose
An impressive studio shot that lays bare the artifice used to make these images work: the painted backdrop with visible border, the matching design shoes and carpet, the desk or piano the woman's arm is resting on, surrounded by an oval frame common
Singhalese ayah (Nurse Maid)
Plate & Co. in Colombo dominated the postcard trade on the island of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), and sold half a million postcards in 1907 alone, an enormous sum for a single publisher.
Master Nandram
A hand-tinted real photography by an exceptional filmi postcard publisher in Sukkur, Sindh. The actor Nandram starred in the film Master Stroke (1927) which this postcard may celebrate, else the "Master" may simply be his title.
Expecting
A rare image of a pregnant woman (or is she just waiting?), posing in a studio, with an abundance of real vegetation surrounding her.
An Indian Actress
A startling image of an Indian actress, carrying a bow in one hand, perhaps from the play she is acting in. But is it a she?
Coolie with his Basket
A postcard by the great Indian painter M.V. Dhurandhar illustrating an Englishwoman looking over a coolie offering his services with an empty basket. Note the cleverly positioned Indian woman with a basket on her head in the background.
The message
