British Kashmir Markings 1866-76
This page abstracts from the combined chronology just those entries that pertain to the British operations in Kashmir; no information has been changed. Essential reading for understanding the early period are two articles in the SG Monthly Journal by Anthony Bard: “The Resident’s Dak 1867-70 Part I & Part II,” Nov and Dec 1982.
The British post offices in Kashmir were operated as part of the larger Imperial system in India. By 1859 this system had consisted of four Postal Circles, namely Bombay-Sind, Northern, Bengal-Burma, and Madras. Each region had a designated headquarters, also designated sadr ~ head, a word sometimes rendered in the literature, indeed on certain postmarks themselves, as “Sudder” or “Suddar”. Some rearrangements ensued and in 1861 a specific Punjab Circle was created with Lahore designated sadr.
“Cashmere” became part of the Punjab Circle. District post offices that had been operating under local authority parallel to the Imperial system gradually became subsumed in these Imperial operations and new offices were created as needed. Britain’s first post office in Kashmir was instituted at Srinagar in spring 1867, first as a sub-PO and later as a head-PO. Matters were not formalized until 1871. Another sub-PO at Leh was opened in autumn 1876. The State post office ceased to operate on 1 November 1894, when all postal arrangements came under the authority of the British Imperial system.
° POST OFFICE CASHMERE + C duplex. The drawing of the duplex on the left, which was taken from Séfi & Mortimer, should show a circle enclosing the obliterator segment, and is otherwise fairly impressionistic. This was the first British postal marking used in Kashmir. It is known from April 1867 to the end of the 1870 visitors’ season on mail leaving the state posted by Europeans resident in Srinagar. Such visitors were allowed a half-rate privilege on the State postage. This mail passed through the Indian hill-town of Murree to the west. The date stamp section was used without date inserts in the 1870 season to obliterate native stamps (image right) on mail lacking British postage. It was also used as an unpaid transit or sorting date-stamp.
° POST OFFICE CASHMERE with ‘branch’ fleuron at the bottom. This rare marking in red is now attested on only three or four covers, but spread over time from June 1867 (scan above) to at least September 1869. It is not part of a duplex implement.
° 147 obliterator. This numeral, enclosed in a lozenge or rhombus of horizontal bars, is sighted on a Ladakh cover that passed through Srinagar, Jammu, Sialkot, Lahore, and Nirpoor on 12 October 1867. Where was this obliterator applied? The number 147 is to be contrasted with earlier counterparts 244 and 144 attested at Sialkot in the period before the advent of Native stamps. Bard reports the 244 for 1855-59 and the 144 as an error between 1859-60. Jaiswal collection.
In red. The British POST OFFICE CASHMERE + C duplex that first appeared in April 1867 is recorded by A.S. Bard as having been used in red as a sorting mark on two covers dated 29 May 1869 and 5 June 1869.
A number of important British postmarks make their appearance in April 1871; those at Srinagar in consequence of that office coming under the auspices of the Punjab Circle.
° Serifed CASHMERE + 325 duplex. This implement was used between April 1871 to perhaps May 1875. This image, which contains the Kashmir 2a buff, is a detail from a May 1871 cover in the Hellrigl collection. What follows in an instructive fragment bearing on this duplex:
° Serifed CASHMERE cds in independent use. The upper strike is of the duplex shown in the preceding entry, but now we also see in the lower strike the simultaneous strike from of a second implement used independently. Date insertions, when present at all, come in both the month-day and day-month formats. The year was discontinued from 1873. The separated cds is attested between the same dates as recorded for the duplex. Reference: T. Mac Gillycuddy and T. Bard, India Post 09, 62 (1975).
° Serifed CASHMERE cds in red. One is familiar with Umritsurs, Sealcotes, and Sealkotes coming in a variety of red and orange shades, but not the CASHMEREs. Rare postmark from a cover in the Hellrigl collection.
° CASHMERE Triangle. This tds is one of a series of similar markings used in British India. The SEALCOTE version is pictured upscreen in the 1868 section. The earliest date for this Kashmir use may be April 1871, the year that the British Office at Srinagar became part of the Punjab Circle. Though rather rare, this marking persisted through several years, evidently into 1874 to judge by the drawing in Séfi & Mortimer. It was more often employed as a transit seal, not an obliterator, but it makes a certain ado about missing British postage in both cases. This detail is from a Calcutta-bound cover without British postage, October 1871, in the Hellrigl collection.
As to the 5/L-3 obliterator, one of the “All-India” series: Each Postal Circle was assigned a letter, usually after the initial letter of the sadr town. Such being Lahore for the Punjab Circle, we see the use of L on the series of obliterators most pertinent to us. Even the L on the Leh obliterator is said to represent Lahore. Quoting from Renouf:
“The obliterator has the merit of effecting a very thorough cancellation, indeed far too thorough in the view of the philatelist. It is difficult to regard it as other than inartistic and even hideous.”
But how to read them? Paraphrasing Renouf: The center line contains the Circle letter on the left and the number of the regional Disbursing Office on the right, the two being separated by a hyphen. If the office in question was subordinate to the disbursing office, its own number was added at the top. If the office in question was a merely a branch of such a non-disbursing office, a third number was added at the bottom. In the case of a branch office of a disbursing office there is of course no number at the top, but only the branch number at the bottom.
° KASHMIR + 5/L-6 duplex. This separable implement appeared just before the Special Printings and persisted in service throughout the transitional period and well into the early New Rectangulars period. The type, seen possibly from May 1875, is not seen after the summer of 1880. It is with this implement that the traditional spelling of old ‘Cashmere’ had assumed its final form, which Séfi and descendants tag the Hunterian spelling. The lettering is large and spacious, with the S and the H particularly more ample and airy compared with later constricted versions in one or both of these letters. There is a dot at the end that is sometimes not visible. In the obliterator, L = Lahore, which was the sadr of the Punjab Circle; 6 = Rawalpindi, which was was the disbursing office to which 5 = Srinagar was the subordinate non-disbursing office.
° L-35/4 obliterator. This type is mentioned in the Billig Handbook, and we have not seen other discussions of it. Here is the quotation from Renouf p 508:
“The Punjab series ends at number 22, ..., but I have an entire from Cashmere with the cancellation L-35/4. The letter shows a postmark of Srinagar, which is probably a sorting mark, for the place of origin is doubtless a branch office of Srinagar, Srinagar being the disbursing office. The number 35 for a disbursing office requires some explanation. Is it simply a bad blunder by the central Punjab office?”
Was Srinagar a disbursing office at the time? Our tentative stab at an accounting for the anomalous marking is that it is really an L-3, i.e., disbursal from Sialkot. The 5 is the non-disbursing office number for Srinagar, which was simply inveigled into the central line instead of excising the upper bars and carving the 5 at the top. Then the 4, assuming it to have been at the bottom, was for some here unknown branch office of Srinagar.
° KASHMIR cds. This independent datestamp is found alongside the duplex type from May 1875. In contrast to the cutting shown above, the S here is more constricted, the M is less symmetrical, and the top of the R is not so wide. Its life was also shorter, lasting only until autumn of 1877, the year of the first transitional oilcolors. Unlike its companion it is therefore not seen on covers bearing New Rectangulars. Both types are to be distinguished from later types after April 1878 that have a noticeably narrower H.