4a Oilcolor Circulars

Oilcolor printings on European laid or native paper, including reprints, are included in this section. Key references are T. Eames India Post 29 88-90 (1995) and India Post 29 129 (1995).

4a Oilcolor Blues

The 4a slate-blue oilcolor on European laid paper. Though very rare, it is known in both used & unused condition. The native paper counterpart is not listed in Gibbons. The following rare item threatens proximity to the latter, but is of a less bluey hue:

The 4a violet oilcolor on native paper. Unlisted shade. Ex Masson, Hellrigl collection.

The 4a slate oilcolor on European laid paper paper. This variety is attested in only three copies. Notice the overlapping of adjacent impressions at the upper and lower edges. Hellrigl collection.

4a Oilcolor Blacks

Does the 4a black oilcolor on native paper exist? An example on the European laid paper also may not exist. In this respect the 4a die stands allied with the 1a die in not wanting to serve in black oils for postal duty. Common native-paper reprints exist for all three denominations of the circulars.

4a Oilcolor Reds

The 4a red oilcolor on native paper (left) and on European laid paper (right.) The latter is very rare in used condition, perhaps only five copies attested. Collection Hellrigl.

The 4a brown-red oilcolor on European laid paper. On cover the variety is reported as unique (“Kashmir Blue” Sale Lot 119) from spring 1878. The counterpart on native paper is also known in both new and used condition. The native paper types are blotchier than these European paper types, which tend to have the characteristic oilcolor striations as seen above.

The 4a orange-red oilcolor on native paper. At least it is reminiscent of the orange-red listed by Eames in the 1a denomination. In daylight there is a distinctive ‘coral’ cast to the specimen shown here. A 4a orange-red oilcolor on native paper reported in a unique occurence (Haverbeck Lot 1281) on a registered cover, Jammu to Amritsar dated 7 April 1878, but we do not know if its shade is like the example seen here. (The Eames article incorrectly refers to the circular, which carried the registration duty on that item, as a 1a.)

A 4a brown-red oilcolor on native paper in a bit of a winey mood. Eames takes these to be early color trials; other commentators take them to be later reprints. In any case one can find rather good matches with certain early New Rectangulars (on European laid paper) where the pigment has been slightly thinned out. Speaking of matching rectangulars:

The 4a dull scarlet oilcolor on native paper. It is here compared with the 1879 ½a dull scarlet on medium wove paper in the New Rectangulars.

Séfi & Mortimer mention only two red reprints: a “red,” by which they might mean one or another of the preceding or something else altogether, and a ‘rosine’. Our understanding, perhaps erroneous, of a rosine circular is shown on the ½a oilcolor page.

4a Oilcolor Orange

Eames in India Post 29 89 (1995) reports a previously unrecorded 4a yellow-orange oilcolor in both used and unused condition. One of the latter shows traces of olive-green pigment on the back, and so he dates it to the transitional period.

Reprint. The 4a dull orange oilcolor on native paper. An ‘ochre’ in the Haverbeck Sale 1298, is known overprinted in black with SPECIMEN. The reprint has several striking counterparts in the other two circulars, both denominations of the first Kashmir plate.

4a Oilcolor Yellows

No postal issue in yellow oilcolor is known in this denomination on either the native or the European laid paper.

Reprint. The 4a yellow-bistre oilcolor reprint on native paper. This may or may not be the sole yellow of the Séfi & Mortimer reprints listing.

4a Oilcolor Greens

The 4a sage-green circular on native paper is very rare, with probably fewer than a half-dozen known in unused condition, despite the very low price in SG. We have no information about used copies, except to note that it is unpriced in SG.

The 4a sage-green circular on European laid paper is also extremely rare, with perhaps a dozen known in unused condition. A used example can be seen on a registered cover dated February 1878, Blue Sale Lot 133. The issue may or may not have a counterpart on this paper in the ½a denomination (rumors conflict) but likely not in the 1a, and neither is given an SG number.

Reprint. The 4a ‘green’ on native paper. These are complex creatures consisting of two or three separate components, such as a dun background wash, small emerald blobs, and other superposed green. These stamps are generally of lighter hue than originals and tend to come in less blotchy, less oily, impressions. Eames refers to these as experimental printings in sage-green, and to the originals as olive greens.

4a Oilcolor Purple

Reprint. The 4a purple oilcolor on native paper. This has a slightly brighter counterpart in the 1a denomination. Séfi & Mortimer‘s reprint listing reports a ‘deep purple’ in this 4a denomination, which we can only assume is the shade seen here.

4a Circular Reprints

Here collected is Séfi & Mortimer’s reckoning of the 4a circular reprints on both native and wove papers. For the latter, each type is listed as coming in both toned and smooth white varieties. Not all of these may now be extant. A couple of examples in the deep black & deep blue are shown below the table.

Native-Paper

Wove-Paper

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 4a forgery (above left) with an impression from the authentic die on the right. A stark difference shows up in the rendering of both elements in the Dogri dak at the top. In addition, an imagined extension of the central numeral aligns pretty well with the (anomalously straight) back of the -k in the forgery, whereas in the original that extension is directed considerably more between the two elements in question.

There is also a rare variety that Séfi & Mortimer (whence the b/w image) suggest is the result of the die having incurred damage. It made for a bit of a mess in the center.

Above: There is a second (II) class of Missing-Die forgery that comes in at least five colors, of which this is the vermilion on thin, slightly toned wove. We designate this type with ‘II’ in Séfi & Mortimer’s checklist below. By “woves” plural, one means that the items are attested in both toned-wove and smooth white wove varieties.

4a Missing-Dies (all oilcolor)

Brighton Forgeries

4a Brightons (after Séfi & Mortimer)

Staal-Sharma Reprint (ink 1981)

Of the 4a circular, 24 reprint impressions were done in purple ink and 12 in black ink.

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