Early Indian postcards were usually printed in Germany, especially the postcard production center of Saxony, as well as France, Britain and Austria. Ravi Varma was the one exception, once his press outside Bombay opened just after 1900. Like for most European and Asia countries, the first Indian postcards that were mailed date back to the late 1890s.

Some of the postcards in this collection were based on painting by M.V. Dhurundhar (1867-1944), one of the most remarkable early progency of the JJ School of Art in Bombay. Born in Kohlapur, Maharashtra, he was a student there from 1891 to 1895, when he received the annual Gold Medal. His portraits of the newly wealthy Bombay merchants, with a tinge of darkness and profound realism, continue to stand out in the museums and galleries of South Bombay today. His Marwari woman is one his most popular among probably two dozen of his postcard images from roughly 1905.

Clifton & Co., the source of many other images, was one of the most prominent Calcutta firms with office in Bombay. They published both their own images, and at certain points, those of photographers like Fred Bremner.

Moorli Dhur & Sons in Amballa and H.A. Mirza & Sons in Delhi were two of the other most popular mass postcard merchants. Their work covered literally hundreds of locations, from the largest cities to the smallest cantonments. Like Raphael Tuck's in London, Plate in Colombo and D.A. Ahuja in Rangoon, they were the leading all-India publishers of color postcards.

Other bigger Indian publishers included The Ravi Verma Press and The Phototype Company in Bombay, and the Archaeological Photographic Works of India in Delhi. Amongst these, Ravi Varma was famous for his portraits and calendar-art which were printed in India. His works showcased a blend of European realism and Tanjore style of painting. Though he used indigenous paints prepared from tree bark, leaves, soil and flowers in his initial days, Ravi Varma switched over to oil paintings later. In 1894, Ravi Varma established an oleography press named the “Ravi Varma Pictures Depot” to reproduce his paintings on a large scale.

Then there are the smaller print runs by artists like Joseph Hoffman and Mortimer Menpes, or the anonymous Britisher who published a series of his own paintings in a fancy envelope in 1910.

Early Indian postcards stand out for their large variety of cities and subjects, photographers, publishers and styles.