Typical Pictures of Indian Natives by F.M. Coleman was one one of the earliest books with color photographs published in India. It appeared in October 1897 and went through several editions.

The half-tone printing process had just started coming into widespread use. It provided the first economical way to reproduce photographs in books and magazines. Color half-tone printing was particularly novel.

As Coleman wrote in the first edition, his idea was to use color to present "a true rendering of the varied and picturesque costumes worn by Natives of India in general, and of Bombay in particular."

Published by the Times of India and Thacker, Spinck & Co., the largest Raj retailing establishment, it might have been printed in London. The imprint carries the London address (121 Fleet Street) of the Times of India's London offices. On the other hand, both Thacker and the Times of India had printing presses in the city. The fact that the second edition came out less than three months after the first suggests quick turn-around.

F. M. Coleman was General Manager and owner of the Times of India. His name still lives on in Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd., the holding company for the Times of India Group, today one of the world's largest newspaper publishers. T.J. Bennett and Coleman had bought out and formed the Times of India partnership under their names in 1892.

The book itself consists of 24 color plates, including one 9 piece images of various head-dresses (above). Coleman does not attribute the photographs, which suggests that he probably was himself the photographer.

The images include the wide variety of the city's residents, from Parsees to Persians, Arabs and Jews, to a fruit seller, moneylender, postman, beggar, servants, dancing girls, and many more.

They provide a wonderful glimpse of the many groups that built one of the world's most cosmopolitan cities. Coleman knew some of the subjects himself. As he writes of the Brahman shown here in a later edition:

It is with sincere regret that the writer has to chronicle the death of the subject of the present picture. Since the foregoing remarks were written, he fell victim to the terrible scourge which has ravaged the city of Bombay. A pattern of industry, honesty and truth, respected by everyone with whom he came in contact, he leaves a blank which it will be difficult to fill.

The Google books version below is complete, but marred by bad scans of the photographs. These are available in a gallery view through the first link below.