1a Oilcolor Circulars

Oilcolor printings on both the European laid and native papers, including non-postal material, are entertained in this section. Two key references are T. Eames India Post 29 88-90 (1995) and India Post 29 129 (1995). Other oilcolor categories are linked down-screen as follows:

1a Oilcolor Blues

The 1a slate-blue oilcolor on native paper (scan above left.) Some specimens of this shade class quite well match the indigo of the SG Colour Guide. In spite of the low catalogue pricing, only a small number of used copies (fewer than a half-dozen?) on the native paper are attested. There is a range of shading (examples below), and different commentators use widely different shade terminology.

The 1a slate-blue oilcolor on European laid paper (scan above right.) While postally used copies on the European laid paper are apparently more common than the native-paper variety (catalogue pricing notwithstanding) they are still very scarce.

The 1a steel-blue on native paper. The specimen shown here is a bounce-print. Eames records this shade as being the latest known postal use for the circulars, a cover from 20 May 1878, some 10 days after the first posting of a New Rectangular (a 2a official, if you want to know.)

The 1a steel-blue on European laid paper (Eames.)

The 1a violet-blue on European laid paper. Reported by Eames as non-postal ‘experimental’ printing on medium laid meshed paper with narrow laiding lines: India Post 29, 128-30 (1995.) The type comes in a range of shades between the steel-blue, as above, and lighter grey-blue shades.

Less-blue shade varieties range from light slate-greys (above left) to deeper slate-violets (right.) Different shade terminology is used by different commentators. Many of the shade varieties are attested on both the native paper, as above, and...

A similar range of the ‘less-blue’ shade varieties on European laid paper. These may be scarcer that the native-paper counterparts; it’s just that we haven't seen any. Such shades on both paper types are either very rare or unknown in postal use.

Non-postal. The preceding is an curious item on an unusually brittle and rough non-wove paper somewhat reminiscent of the older ‘rice papers’ of some of the Die I forgeries. The impression shown here has a greenish cast in daylight and might pass muster for a reasonable indigo.

More non-postals. While Séfi & Mortimer chronicle only a 1a “blue” and a 1a “greyish-blue” for the native paper reprints, a broader range of shades is seen. In daylight, the circular on the left is very close in shade and demeanor to the 1a Kashmir non-postal strip of unknown date:

1a Oilcolor Blacks

Non-postals. Above left: The 1a black oilcolor on native paper. Rumor aside, one-anna originals are unknown in the basic black. Eames reports a unique example of the half-anna denomination faked to appear as a one-anna black, and which did see postal use at an unknown time.

Above right: The 1a grey-black oilcolor on thick white European laid paper. Reprints on European laids may not be as mythical as unicorns after all. In daylight, the shade has a non-black cast to it, of subtle bluish or greenish persuasions. A 1a grey-black oilcolor Brighton forgery on thin white laid paper is mentioned, but this specimen is not like the Brightons we know and hate.

1a Oilcolor Reds

The 1a vermilion-red on native paper 1877. This was printed in close spacing with another or more. Overlapping and wide spacings are also known. This shade may be the earliest of the oilcolor issues, and is known also in the ½a and 4a circulars as well as in the Jammu plate. The extended hook in the central symbol looks quite wrong, no?

A 1a ‘red’ oilcolor on European laid paper may be attested in postal use. The shade is not known to us.

The 1a deep red oilcolor on native paper 1877. Eames notes covers in this shade from August to December 1877. There are counterparts in the Jammu-plate rectangulars.

Non-postals. The 1a brick-red on native paper. We do not know whether this is the pale red of Séfi & Mortimer’s reprint listing or (following Eames) the brick-red experimental printing from the transitional year 1877-78, or neither. In any case, it is not attested in postal use and has non-postal counterparts in the ½a and 4a circulars. Séfi & Mortimer list three other reprints in the red family, a deep vermilion, deep rose-red, and an orange-red.

A 1a brown-red oilcolor circular on native paper in a very sharp printing is another non-postal item of note. The shade & demeanor is like that of the rare Jammu plate block chronicled as a reprint block in Gibbons, along with a similar sharp printing in bright blue (our steel-blue.)

A 1a ‘red’ oilcolor circular on European laid paper. Such an entity does exist unused, but whether it is another example of the wayward class of ‘reprints on laid paper’, or some kind of pigment/paper trial, or even an unused example of the alleged postal issue B12.1, we leave to wiser heads.

1a Oilcolor Yellows

The 1a yellow oilcolor on European laid paper. This extremely rare stamp, if even existent now, is mentioned in Staal, p 92, and is unlisted in Gibbons. Counterparts in the ½a do exist both used and unused, but not so for the 4-anna denomination. On native paper, no 1a yellow oilcolor circular is known, candidate non-postals included.

1a Oilcolor Oranges

No transition year oranges are reported for the 1-anna denomination, not even in a non-postal experimental printing. A postally used yellow-orange is, however, chronicled by Eames for the the 4-anna denomination.

Non-postal. The 1a dull orange oilcolor on native paper. For comparison we have also displayed with it counterparts in the ½a and 1a Kashmir rectangulars. Precisely the same shade occurs with the other two circulars, and shades not very different occur also in the issued (and reissued) high-value New Rectangulars.

1a Oilcolor Greens

The 1a olive-green oilcolor on native paper. Examples on cover are rumored to exist (unpriced in SG.) Fewer than a dozen unused specimens in the correct shade are attested. Pricing of unused copies, which are usually catalogued under the shade-term ‘sage-green’, is low relative to rarity on account of interference with more common non-postal material of similar appearance. The item shown above is from the Hellrigl collection, ex Atkinson. Counterparts on European laid paper are unattested in this denomination, but are known in the 4a.

Non-postals. The 1a sage-green oilcolor on native paper. As mentioned in the preceding entry, this shade-term is usually used for the postal items as well. Eames, however, reserves the term ‘sage-green’ for the non-postal class of lighter or brighter hue, which are also usually of sharper demeanor, or at least less blotchy. The matter is complicated by the highly composite nature of the pigment. Paper studies suggest that some of this non-postal class were early experimental printings of the transition year.

1a Oilcolor Purples

The purples are a bit interesting. The Haverbeck auction catalogue mentions that purple reprints on native paper in the 1a and 4a denominations are rare (Lot 1299) and none exist at all in the ½a. Well, they are not really as scarce as all that:

Non-postals. The 1a bright purple oilcolor on native paper. A very pretty print. Some doubt has been raised in the past about their reprint status. Do check out Séfi & Mortimer’s note in this link†. These authors conclude with the statement, “As, in 1878-79, this purple was for the first time introduced for two denominations of the new rectangular stamps, it is not impossible that the purple oil circulars on native paper had a more legitimate origin than has, as yet, been supposed.” We note that Eames does not include the purples in his discussion of the experimental printings, taking them to be, we must suppose, later reprints. Another class of purple printings on native paper exist (above right) that are scruffier and duller. They also exist in the 4a denomination. The violet smudge on the left edge of the stamp is reminiscent of the aniline(?) dye stain seen in some of the early New Rectangulars when presented to water.

1a Oilcolor Circulars (1877-78)

1a Non-Postal Circulars

Herewith tabulated is Séfi & Mortimer’s reckoning of the 1a circular reprints on both the native and wove papers. While we have displayed some of the native-paper type in the preceding section, we are unable to show any in the wove, which are all too common in the other two denominations of the circulars. The woves are reported as occuring on both the toned-wove and smooth white wove varieties. The 1a chocolate (on toned wove only) is said to be extremely rare. Starred (*) entries are items added:

Native Paper

Wove Papers

European Laid Paper

1a Missing-Die Forgeries

The “missing-die” forgeries (ca. 1890) were imitations of six stamp designs. Preliminary comments on these forgeries were made with the ½a circulars.

Compare the forgery on the left above with the reprint on the right, for which the design is authentic. The starkest of many differences concerns the slant and shapes within the central symbol. In the forgery, the semi-circular hook is more symmetrically oriented wrt the unit stroke, which itself is more bulbous. In the forgery its vertical axis if extended would cut through the center of the Dogri da- at the top, but not in the orginal. The second Dogri letter -k at about the one-o’clock position has a bent back in the forgery, straight in the orginal. The checklist (all oilcolor) is taken from Séfi & Mortimer. By “woves” plural, one means that the item is attested in both toned-wove and smooth white wove varieties:

1a Circular Missing-Dies

1a Brighton Forgeries

The 1a reddish-brown Brighton forgery on toned laid paper. The pigment is highly soluble in water. The listing below is from Séfi & Mortimer. This general type of forgery was introduced on the ½a oilcolor circulars page.

The 1a Brightons

Staal-Sharma Reprint (ink 1981)

Of the 1a circular, 29 reprint impressions were done in purple ink and 11 in black ink.

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