This page carries the story from the replacement of watercolor stamps by oilcolors at Jammu, through the introduction of New Rectangulars at Jammu, and proceeds to the end of printing operations altogether at Jammu. The printing implements, old and new, came under the final control of the Srinagar office from spring of 1881 at the latest.
1877. Queen Victoria assumes the title Empress of India. And it’s a time of change on the stamp front. At Jammu, the Watercolor Period comes to its end, inaugurating a chaotic and uncertain year for us J&Kers that presages the advent of the New Rectangulars next spring. The inscriptions on the British stamps were changed from EAST INDIA to INDIA. The early-design Victoria ½a, 1a, 2a, and 4a persisted, however, alongside the new designs well into the mid-1880s. Chinese control over the Kashgaria region, across the Karakoram mountains north of Ladakh, was reasserted. The region was renamed Sinkiang ~ Xinjiang ~ ‘New Frontier’. De Sarzec discovered the Sumerians in digs at Nasriyah, Iraq. Astronomer Asaph Hall discovers Deimos around August, I mean around Mars.
Stamps 1877. The first of the experimental oilcolors are reported from Jammu in April of this year, though it is from June that they start to appear in earnest. This launches a complicated transitional period in J&K philately; the postal status of several of the oilcolor productions is not clear and the story for some them is likely lost. September begins the season of the curious use of the Iron-mine seal as a postage stamp. We keep in mind that the so-called “Watercolor Decade” persisted into 1878 on the Kashmir side.
The old spelling SEALKOTE gives way to SIALKOT in March 1877. The separable L-3 obliterator, which made its appearance years ago in 1874 with SEALKOTE date stamps, continues its labors into this new period, and will be seen with several of the SIALKOT date stamps until summer 1880.
° Horizontal SIALKOTs. To facilitate comparison, different cuttings over a span of years are shown here together. The item at the top is here undated as to year. The lower three are from December 1877, January 1878, and January 1879. The latter shows a more tightly set lettering in the SIA- as well as the small base to the L, which makes for a noticeable difference in the distance between the uprights of the L and K. The kind is persistent into 1884, when it is augmented with the REG[istered] version:
The REG[istered] is known from March 1884 to possibly the following spring when it was superseded by the same type with year date showing. Neither type is listed in Séfi. The stamp is the 4a registration rate stamp from the composite plate.
° L-3-8 duplex. A rare variant of the L-3 obliterator for Sialkot City exists, dates unknown, with the bar pattern reversed, three along the top and two along the bottom. The doublet at the bottom is separated to contain a small ‘8’, presumably to distinguish the City subtype. It was used independently of a datestamp.
It was actually somewhere around June 1876 that the new AMRITSAR spelling began to supplant the earlier UMRITSUR spelling, though a few of the latter will be showing up for a few weeks yet, maybe even to August. For ease of comparison, we collect several types together here, somewhat out of chronological sequece. The new-spelling types come not only in 1st and 2nd delivery versions as did the other, but now adds a 3rd delivery version. The 1st delivery comes in at least two different cuttings. Such delivery examples in the new spelling from the watercolor period are somewhat scarce and desirable. Since we cannot postpone a view of the basic type, here is a sampling of different sorts scavenged from the post-watercolor period; they were a long-lasting fixture:
° Type 1 of the 1.DELY AMRITSAR. These samples are for January & September 1878. Two characteristics, among several, that distinguish this type from the following is that the T does not wholly lie under the E above it and that the final-R is wide compared with its counterpart below. Contrast the following:
° Type 2 of the 1.DELY AMRITSAR. In these details from June 1877, April and May 1879, notice how the rather narrow T now does line up under the E above it. Most notable perhaps is the constant upper dotting of the second A. The final-R is narrower here, and the spacing between the intial-A and the circle is greater. The latest for both types seems to be autumn 1881, well into the New Rectangulars period.
° The 2.DELY AMRITSAR. The earliest date we have heard of is for July 1877 on a Kashmir watercolors cover. The example left is from August 1878 and the one on the right is December 1880 with clear cover corroboration.
° The 3.DELY AMRITSAR. This late version seems to have had a limited run, attested perhaps only from July into October this year. The 1st and 2nd delivery types are already recorded from last June 1876 in the watercolor period. One curiosity, if familiar enough, is how Masson’s conversion in red ink puts the despatch after the delivery as told by the datestamp. Our utility converts 11th ‘Assu’ to 25 September, with comfort from said datestamp. The obvious contradictions do not seem to have concerned him, and one begins to suspect that he was using a parallel reckoning in tandem. Lot 183 Blue Sale.
° [blank] AMRITSAR cds. This scarce type is distinguished by the absence of delivery notation at the top. That it accompanies another of the same date that is a delivery marking suggests that it had a different function, possibly as an arrival or sorting stamp. Also seen here is the indented form of the REGISTERED cachet for Kashmir/Srinagar, with the name in manuscript. This detail is from a cover in the Hellrigl collection.
September 1877 begins the season of the curious use or misuse of the Iron-Mine Seal as a postage stamp. It was cancelled with itself. Detail from a cover in the Hellrigl collection:
° Curved SIALKOT CITY cds, unserifed, known from November 1877 to early February 1878. It was sometimes accompanied by an L-3/8 obliterator (shown downscreen) where the ‘8’ signifies the City branch office. An earlier and much rarer serifed type SEALCOTE CITY in curve is known sporadically between late 1870 and 1872. A later, and also rare, unserifed version with smaller lettering is reported, dates here unknown. A type with horizontal lettering is also reported.
The Srinagar Seal struck in black as obliterator is known from November 1877 to August 1879. The preceding detail dated 28 ćait 1934 ~ 8 April 1878 lies within that range provided ćait is taken to be the last month of the Hindu year, not the first month. We had before now been taking this example (whether it read ćait or jeţh) to be an anomalously and perplexingly early sighting of the Srinagar Seal in black.
1878. This is an important year in the life of J&K philately, the advent year of the New Rectangulars. This is important year for Chinese philately too, for China also issues her first stamps in 1878, and in a thoroughly amazing coincidence they were also rectangulars. For J&K, a perforated pair of ½a “red” on laid paper is known on cover for 20 May 1878. This date is also taken to be the latest known postal use of a circular, namely the 1a steel-blue oilcolor circular on European laid paper (reference Eames).
This is what the Sialkot and Amritsar were doing on a certain day in January 1878. The long-lived Amritsar delivery datestamp is known way back to the summer of ’76 and it will last to autumn 1881. The stamp is the ½a grey-black oilcolor on native paper on an external cover Jammu to Amritsar dated 19 January 1878. Anthony Bard has noted that all mail from Jammu was routed via Sialkot City between November 1877 and February 1878, but not all of it was necessarily so marked, as this cover shows. See next:
The All-India type obliterator L-3/8 for the Sialkot City Mail Agency, chronicled by Anthony Bard under number BSC5. It sometimes accompanied the Sialkot City datestamp shown upscreen. The central line, L-3 is for Sialkot proper, the disbursing office, and the 8 in the lower set of (two, not three) bars signifies the City branch. The detail shown above was indeed at Sialkot City on 31 January 1878, passed throuh Sialkot on 1 February 1878, and was received at Hoshiarpur the next day.
° An early dating for the narrow-H KASHMIR cds and the anomalous 1•A postage-due seal may be April 1878. Notes in India Post 36 76 2002 and 37 66 2003 alert one to this variety of British postage-due seal for which the last three letters -NNA are missing from the usual ANNA. This seal is (always?) seen to accompany the narrow-H type, but not conversely, for see next image. So far we have seen only pen-cancelled stamps from this type of cover—originating office in Kashmir here unknown.
The Narrow-H KASHMIR cds that is not accompanied by the anomalous 1•A seal mentioned above. Either 1878 or 1879.
° Jamvu Circle in Dogri. First seen in early July 1878. The middle line is occupied by Dogri renderings of the Samvat months, here baisākh 31. Two successive versions of the Jammu Circles are told apart by different spellings of the name at the top. The latter Jammu type appears in the summer of 1886.
° Sialkot Duplex for the native post office. The strike of this non-separable implement is seen perhaps on only some two or three dozen covers, but more are popping up all the time. At one time it was considered to be much scarcer despite its long period of use. It made its first forays in the autumn of 1878, perhaps October, and appeared sporadically for a full decade from what was in effect an extraterritorial office of the native post office. The date inserts are usually missing, partial, or incorrect. Séfi and Mortimer, who did not care to read Dogri, took this postal marking to be of Jammu on account of its postal behavior, and in this respect they were not exactly wrong. Masson (Plate X) took the implement to be of “Srinagar Province” because it belonged to a set which otherwise did, namely Ladakh (not known in postal use), Gilgit (known use only at Leh), and Skardu. Since a duplex for Sialkot existed, one might be on the lookout for counterparts (in some form) for “extraterritorial” services at Lahore and Amritsar, but so far they are not attested or are not identified as being such. The Sialkot Duplex had a partner in a native postage-due marking (next entry) that appeared the following spring:
1879. The main rail line from Delhi finally reached Jhelum this year, having passed Lahore in 1870; it will reach Peshawar in four years. 1879 is the 289th prime number just so you know, but of Einstein’s birthyear, we shan’t make a peep.
Stamps 1879. Thin wove paper finally defeats the medium and thick woves for dominance. Both the Srinagar seal and Jammu Iron Mine seal see their last service this year at summer’s end. The former is replaced by the Kashmir duplex and the latter by the Jammu 12-bar, which had already been getting some practice runs for a few weeks. Masson reported that the stocks of Old Kashmirs were finally used up by August 1878, but further sporadic sightings are attested, especially from Leh and perhaps from other remote quarters. The question also arises as to the latest known use in the mails of the perforated issues. An eagle-eyed correspondent reports a late-use ½a red perfed on vertical laid paper from November 1879. Does it come later yet? The earliest known use of the 2a bright violet on laid paper is attested on a registered cover dated 19 December 1879, Haverbeck Lot 1464. The earliest known use of the 2a bright violet on laid paper is attested on a registered cover dated 19 December 1879, Haverbeck Lot 1464.
° Sialkot Postage Due Seal masūl bakī. This seal was a partner to the Sialkot Duplex shown above in the native-state extraterritorial post office. Possibly March 1879.
° Jammu Octagonal obliterator. Scarce strikes (in watercolor according to all reports) from this implement are known from April 1879 through late August. Clear impressions reveal that its top two lines read mohr Jamvu ~ ‘seal of Jammu’ in Dogri script, followed by mohr Jammūn in Persian at the bottom. (The illegible example shown here is upside down, not that it matters). Little is known beyond the fact that it was used in some supplemental or provisional way. Perhaps it was a failed candidate for the job of replacing the Iron-Mine seal. The Jammu 12-bar (next entry) appeared on the scene in July and was the successful replacement. The item in the scan above is from a May 1879 cover processed at Jammu. The ½a dull scarlet is on medium wove paper.
° Jammu 12-bar obliterator. This long-lasting implement is known from perhaps July of 1879 to early 1891 when the 3-ring cancellations come into use.
In official use, the Jammu 12-bar was used in purple and mauve inks.
The latest date of attestation for the Srinagar’s circular seal (being struck in black since 1877) is reported from August 1879. Though the Jammu 12-bar had recently come into use as the replacement for the Jammu’s Iron-mine seal, there was sporadic use of the old implement until this this time and into September.
Before we have to leave the old iron-mine seal for good, here above are a couple of late, and unusually clear, strikes of this old workhorse in the early New Rectangulars period.
° Kashmir Native Duplex. The image here is in the form of a 1981 Staal-Sharma restrike in purple ink, and thus shows its latest condition. It was not a separable implement, so if there were more than one type (cf. second image of the obliterator section) we should expect differences in the datestamp section of the duplex as well. The datestamp section sometimes includes day and month, but unfortunately never the year. The postal marking is reported at Srinagar from August 1879 to May 1887, when it was replaced in turn by the Srinagar 9-bar-9 obliterator. The Kashmir duplex is by far the most common of the Native Duplex types.
° The 2.DELY SIALKOT. This type, without year, are not mentioned explicitly in Séfi and Mortimer, which authors do mention rare types of delivery-type in the Sealkote spelling. We do not have an earliest-date report apart from the September 1879 example shown above. The second item above is a detail from what is likely a January 1880 cover.
° The 1.DELY SIALKOT. One naturally feels that 1st Delivery versions existed from the advent of the type, but we have seen only undated examples that must be from a year and more later. The example here is a detail from a cover that contained the Srinagar L-bar, which is seen only after June 1880. So we have a relatively scarce type of datestamp that probably persisted for more than a year.
1880. One plus the 64th power of 2 was factored this year. The New Rectangular plates are still being used at Jammu (in the original plate State I condition) for most of this year. An apparent exception was the temporary loan of the ¼a plate to Srinagar for the preparation of anomalous blue watercolor provisionals between March and July. Thin woves begin to appear in earnest.
Stamps 1880. The notable example is the ¼a ultramarine watercolor provisional from April, a notable rarity in the New Rectangulars period.
And so begins the saga of the various L-bar obliterators in an oval of bars. Every time we have a chance to inspect a very clear impression, we seem to discern a distinct variety. The first of interest to J&Kers was issued to one of the British offices at Srinagar in perhaps June of 1880, but the basic type is known from several other venues. Apart from forgeries, authentic variants exhibit both characteristically shorter and longer bases to the L. (A notorious short-base L comes as a forgery). The Srinagar Ls were long-lasting, much-used, and highly uninformative. We must patiently await their demise after the appearance of the 3-rings of the 1890s period.
° Srinagar L-bar (oval-shaped, long axis vertical). The detail above is taken from an undated cover from either August 1880 or 1881. Notice in particular the wide spacing between the second bar and the first broken bar from the top. The implement that was employed is thus seen to be different from, for example, that seen in the May 1885 entry downscreen. An example with an apparent (or even real) leftward-slant to the upright can be seen in the January 1892 entry.
° KASHMIR cds. Possibly July 1880. We compare here the type in question on the left with that of the narrow-H KASHMIR (1878) on the right. The new version shows less space between the name and the period, the -I- is more centrally positioned between the M and R, and the characteristic narrow-H does not seem quite so narrow; indeed the width of the full name is measurably wider. Neither type is explicitly distinguished from the early broad-H types in Séfi and Mortimer. From late summer of 1882 yet another Kashmir cds without year is reported (Bard) for which the name is still narrower and there is no dot. The next major departure appears in 1884, when year numerals were added to the date line.