Barker and Hooper (Coachbuilders), Kashmiri Gate, Delhi, circa 1940s

 This is a poster featuring the coachbuilders Barker and Hooper, who had an office in Kashmiri Gate, Shahjahanabad (‘Old’ Delhi). Printed in the 1940s after the amalgamation of the two British coachbuilders, Hooper and Barker, the poster illustrates how Kashmiri Gate remained a hub for luxury goods and foreign manufactures even after the establishment of ‘New’ Delhi in the 1930s.

While the Second World War and the resulting ‘war traffic’ contributed to the rise of newer shopping districts like Connaught Place, the end of the war and the Partition of India raised concerns about whether Kashmiri Gate would be displaced as the primary location for European products and elite consumption. The transformation, however, was gradual and uneven. This poster serves as a reminder of Kashmiri Gate’s enduring role in Delhi’s shifting urban and commercial landscape.

A Mughal courtier in Delhi, circa 1820s.

 

This hand-coloured engraving depicts a Mughal courtier in Delhi during the reign of Akbar Shah II, likely from the 1820s. At first glance, it appears to be a straightforward representation—but the image carries with it a layered history of reproduction and imagination.

What we see is not an original but a copy—twice removed—from a scene never directly witnessed by its final engraver. The French artist Choubard created this version for a European audience enthralled by tales of the opulent court of the "Great Mogul." His work was based on an earlier engraving by J. Massard, who in turn copied a sketch by Bishop Reginald Heber, the Anglican Bishop of Calcutta. Heber had visited Delhi in the 1820s and recorded his impressions of Delhi and the waning Mughal court.

This engraving is a late example of such romanticised imagery, produced as the tone of British imperial culture was shifting. As racial attitudes hardened and the East India Company consolidated its dominance in North India, the fascination with the Mughal world gave way to a more dismissive gaze, only hardened by the events of the Rebellion of 1857.

The Qutub Minar on toilet soaps, 1899-1901.

 

On display today is a print of Delhi’s famed Qutub Minar on Gustav Boehm’s toilet soaps from the late 19th century. The Boehm family were Hessian manufacturers of toilet soaps, and from 1899–1901 their products came with images of historic places and monuments from around the world. Their series, Reise um die Welt (“Voyage around the World”), featured sites from across the British Empire, including the Qutub Minar.

While the Qutub Minar was already known to travellers and officials within the British Empire, Boehm’s soap represents an early form of advertising that helped disseminate its image more widely. We know that images of India and Delhi’s historic sites were beginning to circulate through photo postcards at the time. But placing the Qutub on an everyday product like soap brought it into domestic, even intimate spaces—helping to establish Delhi’s monuments as central visual emblems of the city. In this way, advertisements like Boehm’s did not merely reflect the Qutub’s importance—they actively helped produce and promote Delhi as a city of monuments.