Picture postcard India

The odds and ends which are found in an archive and which cannot be easily categorised often end up in a series labelled ‘miscellaneous’ and sit forlornly at the end of the catalogue, in the last box on the shelf.  Barbara Bruce’s papers are no exception.  But these items, being random and unexpected, contain a few treasures.

My favourite are these hand painted postcards of rural landscapes in India, from a small set of six, marked as ‘sold to Barbara’ and dating from the late 1930s.  Two of them have the following text on the reverse: ‘Mahidharpura, Gundi Sheri, Surat’.  This is presumably where the postcards were produced, in the ancient port of Surat, famous for its silk and diamonds, in the coastal state of Gujarat.

Hand painted postcard featuring a bullock, 1930s

Hand painted postcard featuring trees by the wayside, 1930s