Around the time this postcard was published, H. St.J. B. Philby, the father of the famous British spy Kim Philby (born in Ambala in 1912) and then serving in India, wrote in his memoir Arabian Days (Robert Hale, 1948):
"The Great Eastern Hotel of
[Original caption] Narsingarh–Entrance to Old Fort. Narsingarh is the capital of the state of that name in Central India.
[Original caption] A well is generally situated in the principal street of a Burmese village.
A very early advertising postcard for a fine French champagne from a brand that persists today by a distributor with a monopoly in the Bombay Presidency. Moet & Chandon would ikely have offered these cards to its distributors.
A unusually upturned (emptied) cart with yoke pointing to sky.
A rather early real photo postcard from what is now Bangladesh, a part of British India that is vastly under presented in postcard production.
David Mordecai (1909-73) was a photographer in Kolkata from the Iraqi-Jewish community who had a commercial practice which published postcards in color. Note the man on skis in the foreground.
These Gurkha soldiers were possibly photographed in the firm's Darjeeling studio (opened 1890) or Simla a few years later.
One could argue that the bhistee was the most common male postcard type at the turn of the 20th century.
Indian policemen and soldiers were an integral part of the British Empire's law and order apparatus in its Hong Kong colony. William Quin, after becoming Captain Superintendent in 1862, initiated direct recruitment from India.
