A Splendid Surprise

I was surprised last evening by a
belated birthday gift from
my loving wife Samantha.

This was on the porch
when I got home from work.

This was inside the box

This was under the wrapping!

Pretty cool huh?

It is a stretched canvas

reproduction of a vintage travel poster

get one here

"See India - Amber"

Isn't it captivating?

Here is a snippet of info I found about the poster...

(Designed for) Indian State Railways,

'See India, Amber', by Austin Cooper, about 1930.

Coloured lithograph depicting a gigantic caparisoned elephant

with a howdah on its back.

Alongside are onlookers, and guards carrying long spears.

High on a hill in the background are the city walls of

Amber (Amer) in Rajasthan.

 Artist's name at bottom right of illustration.

Information source Sience Museum Group

Sam had seen it on my Indian design idea board,

 and knew I'd been looking at it

on Allposters.com. and Art.com

However the price of framing was a tad prohibitive,

so it was just a pipe dream.

Till Sam discovered a canvas reproduction of it

on Overstock.com! 

Best of all, it was on SALE for $51.29. 

Still above $50, so shipping was FREE!!!

The size is an impressive 24''W X 32''H

So she snapped it up for my Birthday.

I just love the subject matter and

did a little research on the inspiration of the poster.

This is Amber Fort in the city of Jaipur.

image source 

It's featured in the background of the poster.

A classic romantic rajasthani fort palace.
Its construction was started by Man Singh I

in 1592.

A long time tourist attraction where still,

to this day, they have elephant taxi rides
up to and through the fort.

image source

The only modern pics I couldn't find are of

guards with the long spears.

image by foxypar4
Indian State Railways sure did commision
a lot of beautiful posters...

many reproductions are available online

just look under vintage India travel posters.

My canvas poster came
stretched on a wooden frame,

with a bracket for a single nail on back.
I had just the place for it.

In the hallway leading from the India inspired
 living room, on wall space above the towel cabinet.
I had another picture there that Sam didn't like
and didn't fit the theme.
This one is perfect!

Pretty nifty if I do say so myself.
  

What a wonderful wife I have.

 Hope you all are having a great week!

Thanks for visiting and
Happy Hunting!