Beautiful lithographic post card made by Paul Gerherd who worked as technician with Ravi Varma press. It's publised from Karli Lonavala press in circa 1896
Post card :- Ravi Varma Press
Size 12.30x 8.75 CM ( court card)
Print style :- lithographic post card
Year of print :- 1899 non divided back
Artist :- Paul Gerhardt
Varkari (meaning “a pilgrim”) is areligious movement within the bhakti spiritual tradition of Hinduism, geographically associated with the Indian state of Maharashtra. This is a card by Paul Gerhardt, chief lithographer at the Ravi Varma Press, made in 1899 and is among the first artist-signed cards made and printed in India, part of a series advertised in The Times of India in September, 1899. The earliest postmarked example known mostly made for Europe market and being sent on X -mas time.
About the artist:-
Paul Gerhardt was one of the very first people to produce artist-signed postcards in India. As chief lithographer at the Ravi Varma Press, he arrived in Bombay with the press machinery in the early 1890s. The working language at the Press was German, and lithographers at the time were highly trained technicians and artists. Gerhardt was a painter as well, at times working with the Varma brothers whom he befriended and was admired by (as the younger Varma’s diaries record). These postcards, which can be firmly dated to a contract and some of which are signed and dated in 1899, were his own work. Some may date to 1898, and some are not signed but likely from similarities in style and backs to have been drawn and produced by him at the Press.
