Timeline: 1877-1894
This page continues the chronology through the Transitional Year 1877-78 (spring to spring) and thence through the New Rectangulars Period that lasted until the closing of the State posts in November 1894.
AD 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 simply 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 Ladâkh) 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 in August.
° Horizontal SIALKOT cds. The older spellings now give way to this new and final form. Two cuttings above are out of chronological sequence to facilitate the comparison. The second item shows tighter spacing of the SIA- and has a broader base to the L, which makes for a noticeable difference in the distance between the uprights of the L and K.
In this case the lettering is set more tightly than in those above, so leaving ample margin on both sides of the name. This scan was taken from a January 1879 cover, i.e., two years from now. They are persisting into 1884. A type with the year added, which we have never seen, is reported for the winter of 1883-84.
And a yet narrower set again, this a REG(istered) from years from now, 1884 is the rumor. This type is not listed in Séfi-Mortimer.
The separable L-3 obliterator, which made its appearance years ago in 1874, continues its labors and will be seen with several of the new Sialkot datestamps until summer 1880.
April 1877
The first of the experimental oilcolors are reported to have appeared at Jammu already in April of this year, though it is 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.
June 1877
° Srinagar seal in black. Herewith, we believe, the earliest attestation. The date in the lower-right corner reads 28 jeth 1934 ~ 8 June 1877. That this obliteration is indeed the Srinagar seal is confirmed with a digital mask. The red-brown smudging is from the adhesive, which was also used to seal the flaps of the envelope. The literature (e.g. Masson II p 5, Staal p 22) speaks of the advent of the Srinagar seal in black as November 1877, so we have a significant antedating here if accepted. The strike is clearly an anomalous one, for the seal in brick-red is still seen as the prevalent use until early November 1877.
July 1877
° 3RD 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, incorrect though it appears to be. Lot 183 Blue Sale.
September 1877
This month begins the season of the curious use or mis-use of the Iron-mine seal as a postage stamp.
November 1877
The Srinagar seal in brick-red is abandoned for good early this month in favor of the black ink, which persists to August 1879, that is, some fifteen months into the New Rectangulars period.
° Curved SIALKOT CITY cds, unserifed. Starting this month (reference Bard) all mail from Jammu was routed through the Sialkot City facility. The cds type shown above may have first appeared at this time, though Séfi & Mortimer report it to have been extant within the 1876-77 period. The preceding scan from February 1878 has a later end date. Other City versions are reported with smaller lettering and with horizontal lettering, dates here unknown. An earlier and much rarer serifed type SEALCOTE CITY in curve is known sporadically between late 1870 and 1872.
AD 1878
This is an important year in the life of J&K philately, the advent year of the New Rectangulars. The month definitely seems to be May. 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 rectangular in shape.
January 1878
This is what the Sialkot & 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.
April 1878
° 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.
There is a further type of KASHMIR cds that is to be contrasted with this
narrow-H type; see below in the July 1880 entry where the two are contrasted.
May 1878
And this an important month in the year, for the first of the New Rectangulars plates come into use at Jammu. The first sighting on mail is now taken to be the posting of a 2a black official on laid paper on 10 May. A perforated pair of ½a “red” on laid paper are known on cover from 20 May 1878. This latter 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.)
July 1878
° Jamvu Circle in Dogri. First seen in early July. The middle line is occupied by Dogri renderings of the Samvat months, here baisâkh 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.
October 1878
° Sialkot Duplex in Dogri. The strike of this non-separable implement is seen perhaps on only some two-dozen covers. It made its first forays in the autumn of 1878 and appeared sporadically for a full decade from what was in effect an extraterritorial office of the State. The date inserts are usually missing, partial, or incorrect. The duplex had a partner in one of the rare masûl vakî postage due seals for most of its period. (For an example of the latter see the lower item on Staal plate 16.) Séfi & Mortimer, who did not care to read Dogri, took these postal markings to be of Jammu on account of their postal behavior, and in this respect they were not exactly wrong. Counterparts in some form for Lahore and Amritsar, which might have been expected, are not attested. Of the same general type is the kindred (but much more common) duplex for Srinagar, which in fact replaced the venerable Srinagar Seal in August 1879. Others of the duplex type are labelled Ladakh, Skardu, and Gilgit.
AD 1879
Rumor has it that New Rectangular printings on thin woves came into play this year, having defeated 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 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.
April 1879
° Jammu Octagonal obliterator. Scarce strikes (in watercolor according to all reports) from this implement are known from April through late August of this summer. Clear impressions reveal that its top two lines read mohr Jamvu ~ ‘seal of Jammu’ in Dogri script, followed by mohr Jammûn 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 is from a May 1879 cover processed at Jammu. The ½a dull scarlet is on medium wove paper.
July 1879
° 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. There has long been uncertainty about the meaning of the central symbol, which is also seen in the several State duplexes. It has gone by the designation “minim” on account of a shape reminiscent to some in musical notation. It certainly looks much like the Persian m in its isolated form, and it has also been conjectured that it might thus stand for mahsûl for postal ‘tax’ or ‘fee’. Boggs, in very much a minority opinion, offered that the symbol stands for the Persian word sahîh, which means ‘correct’ or ‘passed’, a device known from documents. Or, in what is probably the most prevalent opinion, the symbol is the numeral “1” in a somewhat odd rendering. The latter is our vote if we have one, for what followed was a great industry for producing kindred numerical obliterators for the successive numerals 2 to 9. The 12-bar might then have been the inspiration and precursor for that series. In any case it is always safe to call the item at hand the ‘Jammu 12-bar.’
In official use, the Jammu 12-bar was used in purple and mauve inks. For another example see the Lt. Governor’s cover in the January 1883 entry below.
August 1879
The latest date of attestation for the Srinagar’s circular seal (being struck in black since 1877) is reported from this month. Though the Jammu 12-bar had recently come into use as the replacement for the Jammu’s Iron-mine seal, there are reports of some continued sporadic use of the old implement until this month or even 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 State 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 & 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 State Duplex types.
September 1879
° 2.DELY SIALKOT. This type, without year, are not mentioned explicitly in Séfi & 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.
° 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.
November 1879
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.
December 1879
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.
AD 1880
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 (next entry.) Thin woves begin to appear in earnest. One plus the 64th power of 2 was factored this year.
March 1880
The case of the shuttling plate. The ¼a denomination was used for the half-rate visitors’
privilege on outgoing mail bearing British India postage. This concession had long been the
practice for visitors to Kashmir, but not to Jammu, where the denomination was actually being
printed. Perhaps the postal people in Jammu became tired of sending stocks of ¼a reds up to
Srinagar, and decided that the office at Srinagar could print its own visitors’ stamps themselves.
In any case, we are to understand that the ¼a plate alone was removed to Srinagar in early
March 1880 in time for the tourist season. The Srinagar office was long expert at making ½a
ultramarine watercolors, so that’s what they continued to do with the new plate. But as it
happened, the ¼a brown British postcard came into general use at just about this time and
the visitors’ concession rate on State stamps was soon extended to Jammu as well, where the
British card could be used. As a result, we are also to imagine that Jammu wanted its plate
back, but such was the alleged need for it at Srinagar that it was not returned until perhaps
July. Oh how the outraged visitors at Jammu must have suffered. While Jammu got in the business
again (with reds) it was not to last, for by the following spring all the plates were removed
to Srinagar for good. This note was prepared from Staal p 120, which was itself drawn from
Garratt-Adams’ reconstruction of events in the Philatelic J. of
India 51 48 (1947). The twosome shown above were from the Blue Sale Lot 311.
April 1880
A spectacular example on an Amritsar-bound postcard dated 24 April 1880 at Srinagar. Blue Sale #313. A unique vertical pair off-cover is in the Hellrigl collection. These stamps are seen pen-cancelled, obliterated with the Srinagar L-bars, and as here with the duplex. It is also has a catalogue price for unused condition, very rare apparently.
June 1880
Hereby 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. Another L-bar not originating in Kashmir can be seen in the 1881 entry downscreen.
July 1880
° KASHMIR cds. We compare here the type in question with that of the narrow-H KASHMIR mentioned in the April 1878 entry. 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 & 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.
AD 1881
It is often said that the New Rectangular plates, which had been kept at Jammu since the spring of 1878, were transferred to Srinagar for good in March 1881. The plates, through disbedding perhaps and reattachment with screws or rivets to new bedding, assumed new conditions of state. The first printings in orange appeared in all the denominations (save the eighth-anna plate, which had not yet been carved.) Back in Europe, Jacques Offenbach was seeing success with the opera Les Contes d’Hoffmann, based on the older horror tales of Hoffmann. Benjamin Disraeli dies. Nepal issues her first stamps.
March 1881
° 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.
October 1881
° Sialkot L-bar (circular-shaped.) Not only is this marking more circular than the Srinagar type of L-bar (seen in the June 1880 entry upscreen) the ratio of the base to the height of the L is significantly less than that of any of the Srinagar types. It is found on covers originating in Jammu in the 1881-83 period, and which passed through Sialkot. We do not know for certain where the marking was applied (conventional understanding would certainly disallow Jammu itself.) We imagine it used at Sialkot for cancelling the British postage, while the Jammu 12-bar that invariably accompanies had been used to cancel the State stamps. The Persian at bottom of this cover reads “from Jammu 21 assûj 1938” ~ 5 October 1881.
Here is more sharply-impressed short-based L-bar taken as a detail from another 1881 Jammu-originated cover seen on the internet. As above, it too sported the Jammu 12-bar obliterating a State stamp. The Persian here says ‘Amritsar’, the destination. This type of short-base L is not to be confused for a similar-looking faked postmark produced after the closing of the State posts. Examples of the latter are shown in Postscript I near the bottom of the screen.
AD 1882
The first of the British Empire issues appeared on 1 January though Queen Victoria had already assumed the title of Empress of India in 1877. Venus made transit across the sun this year (the next time would be June 2004 and that’s why we know this.) Lindemann proved that π is transcendental, Charles Darwin died at age 73, and Milan Obrenovic of Serbia over-reacted this year and crowned himself king.
Here is more sharply-impressed short-based L-bar taken as a detail from another 1881 Jammu-originated cover seen on the internet. As above, it too sported the Jammu 12-bar obliterating a State stamp. The Persian here says ‘Amritsar’, the destination.
January 1882
Above: From this time we will see the Amritsar FIRST and SECOND delivery types spelt out as words without year. The year is added in late 1883, some 22 months from now. Third deliveries seem to have been abandoned, at least so far as datestamps go.
March 1882
The Gilgit duplex may not have been actually used at Gilgit: The detail left is an example of such from a 18 March 1882 cover posted at Leh. Though rare, the duplex spans the years and is last recorded as late as summer 1890. The Staal-Sharma restrike is shown for comparison. The date reads maghar ât' ~ 8 maghar, no year as usual. The same cover contained the following item, the scarce L-bar in square format:
While Séfi & Mortimer report this Leh square-bar from as early as 1880 in registration usage,
A.S. Bard puts the first attestation with the Leh/Gilgit cover mentioned just above (not a registered.)
It is known for a couple of years more, to spring 1884. It was much used on the strange Leh bisects
of April & May 1883.
AD 1883
Two extraordinary and dramatic events mark this year: The eruption of Krakatoa in August and the introduction of the New Colors Issues. (New Colors are in fact are quite scarce in 1883 and we would show one on cover if we could.)
This is also the year of the Leh diagonal bisects; the first wave occured in the April-May period (e.g., Blue Sale Lots 300-02) followed by the summer sightings. A cover of 17 July bears the 1a orange bisect and a detail of another can be seen on Staal Plate 16.
January 1883
Above: Letter sent on New Year’s to the Lt.-Governor. A 1a official black on a cover from Jammu via Sialkot to the LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR’S CAMP P.O. on 4 January as per the datestamp. A “2as” in manuscript next to the date 23 poh [19]39 ~ 5 January 1883 was appended the day after arrival; it marks the imposition of a 2-annas charge for the absence of British postage. The obliteration is the Jammu 12-bar in the official purple. Sir Charles Aitchinson was Lt.-Gov. at that time.
November 1883
Above: The year is now added to the FIRST and SECOND delivery types for Amritsar. (Examples without the year are shown upscreen in the January 1882 entry.) There were distinct cuttings: note for example how the Ts line up on the item to the right above in contrast to the other. The basic type was superseded by curved AMRITSARs in 5 lines at an unknown date; there is an example below at September 1888.
Above: The Second Delivery type with year date is somewhat scarce, and there may be only one cutting. The earliest date we know (Bard) is from 25 January 1884. While the latest we know of is for June 1886.But Karakoram philately?
AD 1884
If it’s not our imagination, there seems a relative dearth of dated material for 1884. Maybe David Masson went back to England for a year. Dawson & Smythies state that in early 1884 the ½a plate took on its State III characteristics. Auction lots mentioned in the Haverbeck Sale look back to the older 1a oranges, not to the new 1a greens of naive expectation. Kashmir datestamps take on year-dates until they are replaced by the 3-ring type. The Philatelic Review 6 47 1884 published a nostalgic article on the circular stamps of “Cashmere.” Sholem Aleichem published his first novel, Natasha, in Yiddish this year.
March 1884
A very narrow-set SIALKOT, this a REG(istered) 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-Mortimer. The stamp is the 4a registration rate from the composite plate, position #7.
The first of the curved SIALKOTs appeared this year, and several species emerge through the years, right into the final year of State operations. Some are collected here out of chronological sequence to facilitate comparisons. We do not have clear date ranges in any case:
The basic type, curved SIALKOT, comes in three size classes, as told here by reference to the scale set by the brown Victoria. The small datestamp with year is smaller than the Victoria stamp. The middle-sized type in the middle is about 11% taller than the stamp; happenstance demands that we do not know whether this example had a year, but this is an 1888 usage. The largest circle without the year (it was an 1887 usage) is almost 15% taller than the brown Victoria and about the same size as the Victoria envelope embossments.
Small size category. The REG example is lettered somewhat like the preceding example as to size, but is a distinct cutting. This registered version not mentioned explicitly by Séfi & Mortimer. Other items in this class that have escaped public notice are two cuttings of the 1st DELy type seen on the Foljambe correspondence in March & April 1885 [Ref. G. Harell India Post 40 73 (2006).] The type on the the right, which has noticeably larger lettering, appeared in 1890. There are also a number of rare curved Sialkot types of different sizes that appeared very late (1894) and for which Séfi & Mortimer provide sketches, notably a DEP[arture?], and types with a small fleuron at the bottom, including a 3rd Delivery type.
Large size category, these with year. Different cuttings were used concurrently, even sometimes on the same cover.
March 1884
° Second LEH datestamp. This type, which appeared in March 1884 and lasted beyond the closing of the State posts, is distinguished from the earlier version by the slightly smaller lettering situated slightly higher in the circle, and usually by the presence of the year. The early type never has year dates, while the later type often does, as in the scan. The year is missing for 1886, 1888, and sometimes in 1885; the example of the type given on Staal p 138 does show an 1885 dating.
Rumor has it that this a REG(istered) SIALKOT type (not listed in Séfi-Mortimer) was seen from the spring of 1884.
April 1884
KASHMIR with year. These will be known for another seven years, into spring 1891 when the 3-rings supplanted them together with much else. The lettering is the smallest yet. Between 1886 & 1890 inclusive, the December inserts read DFC instead of DEC.
July 1884
Gulmarg was a popular summer retreat that harbored a sub-post office of the British Srinagar Office. A number of postal markings are known for it over the years, all these of the familiar British series types: a barred-L, a registration cachet, a postage-due cachet, as well as a very late circular datestamp, distinguished from the example shown below by the removal of the *KASHMIR* arcing along the lower half. The type shown here is known into 1892.
AD 1885
Ranbir Singh dies, and his son Pratap Singh will rule between 1885 and 1925, and therefore presides over the State postal service for only the first nine years of his 40-year reign. In January, General Gordon is killed in Khartoum with hundreds at Abu Klea. Gilbert & Sullivan’s “Mikado” opens in London on March 14, and Einstein is having a birthday, aged 6 and pesky. Bohr, Weyl, and Littlewood were all born in this year. May 19 1885 German chancellor Bismarck takes possession of Cameroon and Togoland. The Canadian Pacific Railway reaches the Pacific on 7 November. France declares Madagascar a protectorate in December.
February 1885
The Srinagar L-bar exhibiting an excessively long base. Its dates are unknown, but this example was found on a Srinagar to Baghowal (Gujrat) cover, arriving on 12 February 1885. Compare next entry.
May 1885
Here again is another style of the Srinagar L-bar oval obliterator. It differs from the example shown in the preceding entry by having a shorter base, and differs variously from the 1880 type shown upscreen. These are also to be distinguished from the short-base Sialkot type (1881) and also from a later variety seen in 1892.
August 1885
The LEH Registration cachet is known from August 1885 to 1900. The merchant notation in the corner of the image is for Poh 1943 ~ December 1886.
AD 1886
The turmeric staining ingredient that was used in the early 1/8a yellow issues seems to have been discarded in this year, though later usage is known. A regime of oilcolor reprints of Kashmir Old Rectangulars on native paper is sometimes assigned to 1886 for reasons that we are not aware of. The British 4a6p yellow-green was introduced on 1 May of this year. The early-design EAST INDIA 1a brown shows up, along with the Empire 1a, with some frequency in this period.
January 1886
Above: This large diameter curved KASHMIR datestamp was used primarily, as here, on registered mail. (Though the date in the scan might look to be 1885, it is actually an 1886.) This type, which is not at all common, was superseded in 1889 with a smaller diameter curved KASHMIR REG type of the same size as the curved KASHMIR 1st and 2nd DELY type shown here next:
July 1886
Above: A small-diameter curved KASHMIR five-line delivery type, known also in the 2nd delivery version. Séfi & Mortimer cite May 1889 for the advent date, and we have seen none earlier than that to display. But the Bard listing cites 1886 for their advent, so here this sits pending verification of the digit. Certainly nothing else is extant that serves formally as delivery stamps at Srinagar during the period in question, so these might well have been the chaps, scarce though they appear to have been at work. The circle is of smaller diameter than the curved Kashmir shown above. As mentioned, a formalized REG(istered) version in this small diameter did appear in spring 1889 [as did as a very rare PAR(cel) type] when the large diameter type was retired after its fairly lengthy if sporadic service.
Above: The Baramulla type of closed-box obliterators appears about now. The general type, which are known between 1884 and 1891 were assigned to a variety of subordinate post offices, usually assumed to be of Jammu Province, but the main extant varieties are known to have been processed at Baramulla, Bandpura, and Anant Nag, all of Kashmir Province. One or another is mentioned in a rare rose-mauve. Sidelight on Hazro in Punjab: The paper of both the stamp and the piece to which it is attached is somewhat yellow-toned. Séfi & Mortimer (p 144) report that covers exhibiting the British Hazro postmark do show a bright yellow staining. The authors say that it was caused by “long contact with the fumes of strong Punjab tobacco and snuff. Masson was in the habit of receiving many covers from a tobacco and snuff dealer living in the town of Hazro, who added the profits of stamp-dealing to those of his more orthodox business.” The item here is a cut piece; While Masson himself often marked covers extravagantly, he is not known to have mutilated a cover with scissors.
August 1886
Above: The datestamp with Dogri inscription is the late version of the Jammu Circle in which the ‘Jammu’ is rendered with the m- element in place of the v-. The obliterator that most often accompanied the Jammu Circles was the Jammu 12-bar, as possibly seen here in the scan in the same pigment. Both were active to early 1891 when they were replaced by the 3-ring datestamps for Jammu. An example of the early version of the Jammu Circle is given upscreen at the July 1878 entry.
AD 1887
This year is associated with the re-introduction of laid papers, but in a type that are very thin (~ 0.05mm) compared with those of the 1878-79 period (~ 0.10mm). The paper itself, sometimes known as ‘creamy laid’ is known to have existed earlier through an 1884 embossment on the sheets of what is said to be an 1887 issue. The stamps are known as Pratap Singh issues (named after the Maharaja who had assumed the throne in 1885 upon the death of his father Ranbir Singh.) These issues are rather scarce in postally used condition, i.e., they did not supersede those associated with the 1883 type on thin woves. E.B. Evans wrote an eye-opening series of notes this year on the stamps of “Cashmere” in the Philatelic Record 9 pp 130, 152, 172, 186, 205. Mathematician Ramanujan was born this year, Killing classifies the simple Lie algebras (October) and the Akkadian el-Amarna letters bearing Canaanite glosses were discovered in Egypt. The stamp collector & author L. Dawson was born this year.
May 1887
Above: The Large Srinagar Circle, otherwise known as The Blob on account of the usual condition of the place-name at the top, a typical example of which is shown enlarged in the second scan. It reads ‘Srinagar’ in Dogri lettering. The specimen on the left shows a remarkably clear strike, most unusual. The circle is about 28 mm in diameter, and thus larger than its Jammu counterparts. The venue remained unidentified in Séfi, and so too by Staal & Sharma in their 1983 inventory of their restrikes. Many authors have taken it (as well as the 9-bar-9 obliterator shown next) for Jammu markings despite much postal evidence to the contrary. A.S. Bard seems to have been the first to have recognized in print [India Post 9 85 (1975)] the actual venue. There is an interesting cover shown in the May 1889 entry below that suggests that the Srinagar Circle may have been used at the State office at Sher Garhi. It is known in both receiving and despatch duties, the later use to the end of 1890.
Above: The 9-bar-9 obliterator, so named for the Dogri numeral 9 in the center, was used at Srinagar often in accompaniment with the large Sringar Circle of the preceding entry. A suggestion in favor of their functional partnership was their simultaneous appearance (though the 9-bar did outlive the Srinagar Circle by about a year.) The same form of the numeral can be seen clearly in the date on the Jammu plate as well as on numerous datestamps. This obliterator is one of a series that exhibit the other Dogri numerals from 2 to 8 inclusive, not all of them known in postal use. Curiously, the lower numbers that are known in postal use are attested only in the post-1890 period.
September 1887
The Jammu 10-bar obliterator is attested from perhaps September of this year and will be known into late 1890 or early 1891. An example can be seen in the December 1889 entry below.
December 1887
Above: Our very provisional date range for this large-diameter curved AMRITSAR 2ND DELY is autumn 1887 to September 1888. The first delivery version, which we only presume exists, would seem to be scarce. This type is also distinguished from its successors by the fact that the cutting is done in four lines, not five-lines. Contrast with the curved AMRITSARS shown in the September 1888 entry below, i.e., the types that superseded them.
AD 1888
E.B. Evans concluded his series of seven notes on the stamps of “Jummoo & Kashmir” in Philatelic Record 10 214 1888. Kipling (born in Bombay in 1865) published Plain Tales from the Hills and other stories this year. Matthew Arnold dies, we Victorians remember it well.
February 1888
Above: We have no date ranges for either the large-diameter arc-AMRITSAR, 2nd DELY or for the small-diameter curved SIALKOT REG. The latter is not uncommon, though it is not mentioned explicitly in Séfi & Mortimer.
July 1888
Dates and venue for this distinctive version of the L-bar is not known for certain; it is likely of Sialkot perhaps as early as 1887. The type is shown in this place on account of the dated sighting in Séfi & Mortimer (Plate 58) shown below, which also contains a nice example of the medium-sized curved SIALKOT:
September 1888
Above: The curved AMRITSAR five-line delivery type. We have no advent date, but the horizontal delivery types are known to this month at least, so these successors are placed here pending better information. Let us be on the lookout for autumnal 5-liners. They are of smaller diameter than their other curved-type predecessors seen in the February 1888 entry above; the smaller diameter evidently necessitated the 5-line as opposed to the 4-line setting of the larger implement. The scale of these smaller types can seen below in the April 1889 entry (which, however, is a Kashmir, not an Amritsar marking.) We also have no latest known dates; the latest we can show is from January 1892 in the 2nd DELY type and an April 1894 for a scarce 3rd DELY type.
AD 1889
This year is known in the excitable minds of J&Kers as the advent year of the smooth white woves. The J&K philatelist Alexander Séfi was born. The British 9p rose (issued in 1883) are very scarce on Kashmir covers, but an example shows up on an item for this year in the Kashmir Blue Sale KB325.
April 1889
Above: Here as promised is the formalized version of the Srinagar registration datestamp that replaced the large diameter circle extant sporadically since early 1886. This smaller diameter circle will serve together with the 1st and 2nd Delivery types until spring 1891 when the KASHMIR designation is replaced by SRINAGAR. An example of the delivery type is seen at the bottom of the cover in the following entry:
May 1889
Shown next are a couple of unusual railway markings. The embossed Victoria
is cancelled with the rare L.51 circle, attributed to Sialkot, on 22 May 1889 and the State stamp
was cancelled with a bar-T of the travelling post office, cover below:
Cover: Is the Srinagar Blob specifically a Sher Garhi marking? For read sher garî (~ tiger fort) after Srinagar in the Persian top left. Sher Garhi was the Srinagar fort and palace area in the southern part of the city on the opposite side of the river (west) from the British Quarter. In a largely Mohammedan city, Sher Garhi was the seat of Dogra power, and where a purely Dogri postal marking might be expected in use at its post office. Indeed, was Sher Garhi PO the No. 9 office, given the many instances in which the datestamp and the 9-bar-9 obliterator are used together? In any case, there are no Jammu markings to complicate the story on this Amritsar-Srinagar cover, which shows a clear use of the datestamp in question in use as an arrival stamp on 15 jeth ~ 27 May 1889. The Amritsar origin of this railway cover is shown by the Persian on the lower right. Note added: We discovered to our chagrin and pleasure that the identification of The Blob with Srinagar was made long ago by A.S. Bard in India Post 9 85 (1975). He remarks that this postmark was used mainly as a despatch mark and was discontinued in December 1890. So far as I know, a specific association with Sher Garhi has not been advanced, maybe for good reason!
December 1889
Well, this is what the Jammu 10-bar obliterator and one of the large-diameter Sialkot datestamps looked like just before Christmas 1889. The obliterator has been in sporadic use from autumn 1887; the later thin-line Kotli-type is shown below in the May 1892 entry. There are other types that we despair of distinguishing.
AD 1890
The year 1890 is often cited as the first year that the 3-ring cancels came into use, perhaps very late in the year, but they will take a while to get going. For us they are British, not State, markings. State stamps printed a decade earlier are “reissued” from the Treasury, together with massive production of the so-called Missing-Die forgeries. In fact, a good deal of more or less dodgy material of various kinds characterize the field from here to the end of things in 1894, including the orange watercolor postal forgeries of the ½a New Rectangular. The British 3a brown-orange is issued this year, but is very scarce on Kashmir mail. Wilhem II dismisses Bismarck.
Not counting the common State 9-bar-9 obliterator used at Srinagar (shown upscreen in the May 1887 entry) there are rare sightings of most of the other 9-bar-n obliterators, where n ranges from 2 to 8. They are attested only for this year and next 1890-91. Some dates are given in the Bard Papers link. The 9-bar-5 is the only one for which there may have been no attestation at all. Whereabouts of 9-bar-8s are unknown, but Masson knew of it (his infamous “fishhook” photo has been much reproduced.) A 9-bar-7 in purple is shown in the January 1891; a 9-bar-2 and 9-bar-3 are shown at July 1891. A very rare sighting of the 9-bar-6 is shown next:
November 1890
The 9-bar-6 seen on cover mailed from an unknown venue in Jammu (the province) on 12 maghar [1947] ~ 26 November 1890. The letter arrived at Jammu (the town) on 15 maghar according to the Jammu cds on the left-hand side. What looks to be a curious downward extension of the tail at the bottom of the Dogri numeral 6 is not part of the design, just a wayward splash of ink. Another sighting of the 9-bar-6 is attested (Bard) for 17 October 1890. Curious items.
AD 1891
It is said that the State postcard received a rivet repair early in this year. The 3-ring date stamps started to appear with more regularity. The denominations puzzle in the old circular stamps became a matter of discussion. Oscar Wilde published The Picture of Dorian Gray. A trio of what are called experimental printings on thin gummed wove paper and clean-perforated 12 are said to have appeared this year in a 1/8a brownish-yellow, ½a orange-red, and 1a green in at least two shades. The British 2½a green with denomination overprinted on the 4a 6p yellow-green was issued on 1 January this year but seems not to have appeared on a Kashmir cover until 1893. On Feb 14 US General William Tecumseh Sherman died. On May 5 Tchaikovsky is a guest conductor at Carnegie Hall, NY.
January 1891
The 9-bar-7, used in purple as a transit marking on a postcard dated 4 January 1891. Venue unknown. It will be known again (in black) this October.
Above: The J&K literature often refers to this basic style of combined datestamp and corner-bar obliterator as being of TAVI-type, presumably because the Tavi appeared earliest. The simultaneous use of a TAVI JAMMU-STATE datestamp of precisely the same design as seen here, but without the corner bars, is also attested. Were indeed the obliterator bars separable?
April 1891
This month was an unusually active one for new postal markings. The new spelling JUMMU begins from this time, perhaps to mark its status now as a Head British PO, and it is only now with the snows starting to go away that the new 3-ring cancellations start showing up in earnest. All this provides a natural juncture for what might be called the Late Period.
Above: Other J&K venues came to employ the basic Tavi or corner-bars type. The JUMMU version seen here (from Masson II) may have appeared upon the retirement of the original TAVI (seen upscreen in the January 1891 entry.) Three others in J&K use were the SRINAGAR, DOMEL, and BARA MULLA, the latter not seen until summer 1892. The SRINAGAR is the most common type; but see the September entry below for a caution. But first, speaking of Domel:
The curved DOMEL is known from these April days to just after the closing of the State posts. Domel is not a long walk from Muzaffarabad on the western frontier of Kashmir. You don’t want to be there today, no. The scan is a detail from a postmark-rich postcard in the Jaiswal collection.
More April 1891. The curved JUMMU delivery stamps come in both 1ST and 2ND DELY versions. The REG type also has a fleuron at the bottom, and so we take a hint and put it here with its kind. There was also a PAR(cel). All these are known into 1894. The R/JUMMU registration seal may also have appeared at this time.
July 1891
Above: The 9-bar-2 obliterator found on this puzzling piece (no reverse) may provide a clue to its venue. Inspection through a bright light shows that the notation “Sham...” in purple ink extended only a couple of millimeters more as a diffusing blob under the stamp. For want of evident options, we lamely conjure Sham[bha?] with modest aid from the Persian above it. A veritable 3-ring circus attended the antic shuttling of this cover between Jammu and Srinagar. Whatever its origin, this piece does represent our latest reported sighting for the 9-bar-2. The previous known end-date was mid-June. The first sightings are from the previous summer (Bard.)
Above: The 9-bar-3 obliterator. Detail taken from a 28 July 1891 Jammu registration cover. Venue unknown. The type is recorded also for this August, next month. These have been reported since last summer.
September 1891
Non-postal Tavi-type. First our apology for the unhappy hole in the second stamp; we were fighting off dagger-wielding zealots at the time. Séfi and others warn that the SE.4 91 dating is found in the cancellation of New Rectangular remainders, on reprints of Kashmir old rectangulars (as twice here) as well as on circular reprints. That must have been a busy day or three for the happy stampers. It is known again in legitimate use in later years, to spring 1894 it is said.
October 1891
Above: An unidentified 9-bar. Is it spurious? Detail from fragment dated October 1891, Jammu to Kishtwar. Kishtwar is a seldom-seen destination on the runner-line east & north of the junction at Batout, itself east & north of Jammu. Image taken from the internet.
AD 1892
A large number of covers bearing 1891-91 Srinagar markings, 3-rings and registration boxes, are found with odd combinations of officials and reissues, sometimes in blocks of unseemly size. There is a growing awareness that these were philatelic concoctions for collectors. British stamps are very scarce on Kashmir mail after 1892, Poonch somewhat excepted. The British 3a brown-orange is mentioned by Séfi & Mortimer as a rare usage this year. Gino Fano made the first axiomatization of projective geometry.
January 1892
Above: The barred-L seen here is a variant, characterized among other features by the shortened bars on the left and the appearance of a back slant to the upright. The Amritsar delivery cds seen here made is first appearance back in September 1888.
May 1892
Above: A.S. Bard reports the Kotli 10-bar between May 1892 and February 1894, with the latest date showing sorting use. The type is characterized by the relatively thin lines, at least in its usual execution. This detail, taken from the internet, is from a Kotli to Jammu cover via Nowshera on 29 May 1893. Kotli is south of Punch.
AD 1893
Stanley Gibbons Ltd. moved to its present location at 399 Strand, London. It had been in business since 1865, just months prior to the issuance of the first circulars. British stamps, excepting the embossed stationery, become very scarce in Kashmir mail in this late period. A rare cover with the surcharged 2½a on the 4a 6p green Victoria of 1891 has been reported for this year. No new postal markings?
AD 1894
Okay, here we go, the final year of operations of the State PO. The system will formally amalgamate with that of British India on 1 November. The transition has been occurring for some time, as told by the advance of the “unified” 3-ring datestamps and the diplomatic absence of British stamps in the final period before they take over entirely. Belgian mathematician Catalan dies this year.
April 1894
Above: The latest (and also the earliest) curved AMRITSAR 3RD DELY that we can show. We have no reports on its date range. This type is in four lines, not the usual five as seen in the earlier 1st and 2nd delivery counterparts shown upscreen at the September 1888 entry. By the way, the manuscript scribble is the year 1951, Samvat.
Summer 1894
Above: A number of late curved Sialkots appeared in the months before the closing of the State posts. These scans are taken from Séfi & Mortimer. The lettering on these schematic drawings is not to be trusted as to detail.
September 1894
This Z-type JUMMU (there is also a Y-type) are known for this month. There are also earlier W-types in a different format (see the Bard Papers.) We do not know what these letter distinctions were for. But no X, why ever not?
October 1894
Above: The rare RESIDENCY JUMMU uniplex, seen here for 28 October 1894. The design motif combines datestamp and obliteration bars. The scan is from Masson II. The last mail runs under the formal auspices of the State Post Offices are taking place, to end midnight Hallowe’en. A good run. THE END.
Postscript I
Though our story formally ends when the State Offices are amalgamated with those of British India on 1 November 1894, it is no surprise that echoes of the State postal doings linger in the subsequent period. State postcards, for example, used in an unofficial capacity by visitors, persist for many years—the latest example we have seen on the internet is a 1935 with a George V stamp.
Séfi & Mortimer remark that the marking shown above on the left is seen on New Rectangulars “remainder-stock.” Perhaps some headway can be had in reading it from these images: As the marking appears in mirror-image form on the stamp, we have reversed it for easier viewing in the second image and have also done some makeshift reconstruction using the upper piece. It is dated 1293 ~ 1876, and thus antedates the New Rectangulars themselves. The circle in the center looks like a ‘5’, purpose unknown.
November 1894
A number of the British postal markings natually spanned the cross-over date. Shown here is another of the 1st DELY shown above, but for 5 November, just days after the formal closing of the State post. On the same item was this rare MUZEFFERABAD B.O. for 3 November. We have no idea about its time range. These details are from an internal postcard in the Jaiswal collection.
What follows is another sort of curiosity involving State stamps from what is likely the post-1894 period. The British Rajouri Branch Office, established by January 1895 after the closing of the State post, was on the runner line that stretched along the valley of the Tavi river between Nowshera and Thana Mundi:
The Rajouri strikes seen above on ½a black officials are not highly visible from the front, and being of an oily character are better seen in reversed form from the back. We have re-reversed the image for easier inspection of the marking. A suggestion by Anthony Bard is that these datestamps (missing date-slugs) may represent a fiscal use and that some State stamps may have served a revenue function before they were “sold off to the Good Reverend.” Speaking of whom:
The great sport of philatelic perpetrations also do not end with the closing of the State posts. Numbers of otherwise legitimate Indian covers from the pre- and post-1894 period have been treated with extra helpings of Kashmir State stamps and faked postmarks. One particular type of faked cover is showing up with some regularity on eBay; it was first noted in print in 1979 by W. Hellrigl in Indien-Report, No. 29, p 35. New Rectangulars are spuriously affixed to otherwise genuine (usually non-Kashmir) covers that were posted after the closing of the State Post. An example is pictured in Staal p 174. The earliest cover date we have seen is 1892, the latest so far is 1908. The L-bar postmark was forged. Two examples taken from the internet are shown here:
This type of Srinagar “L[ahore]” marking is told by the short base on the L (not to be confused with the short-base Sialkot type seen upscreen (October 1881 entry.)
Postscript II: The Simons Story
In August 1898 the obsolete stamps that were still held in the State Treasuries came under the sole control of a certain Rev. C.B. Simons through an auction. He operated out of Baramula, a town some 31 miles west of Srinagar downstream on the Jhelum river on the Murree Route. His intention was to raise money for his church by the sale of this remaindered stock to collectors and dealers. A small archive of Simonsiana exists, including some of his correspondence, notes, and special offerings.
The stamp stock that was remaindered by the State office proved to include a quantity of the so-called missing-die forgeries. Some time elapsed before Simons was convinced that he had been selling non-postal material. Séfi & Mortimer devote a juicy chapter to this affair, the “Simons† Controversy.”
A Simons Document
OFFICE OF THE REVENUE MINISTER OF THE STATE COUNCIL.
Kashmir Stamps NOTICE.
Notice is hereby given that the Revd: C. B. Simons, Roman Catholic Chaplain, Baramula,
has been authorized by His Highness the Maharaja and the State Council of Jammu and Kashmir to
dispose of the entire stock of Kashmir Postage Stamps, at present in possession of the State.
The following rules are, therefore, notified for general information:
1. No purchases or sales by State subjects can be made from, or to, any
other person, but the Revd: C. B. Simons.
2. Any State subject infringing this rule will render himself
liable to a fine of Rs. 500, and the confiscation of the stamps.
Srinagar dated 23rd August 1898} Sd. BHAG RAM Revenue
Member, of State Council.
We might note that 23 August 1898 occurs in the 5th month (bhâdon) 1955 as indicated in the last line of the document. Some descriptions of the calendar put bhâdon as the sixth month. We guess that the 200 is the number of copies printed.
One of Simons’ later commercial offerings consisted of sixteen New Rectangulars (original selling price not indicated.) Larger sheets containing 28 and 35 New Rectangulars are known, the former selling originally for Rs 15. Other sale booklets are known. The pencilled numerals on the example below show Stanley Gibbons catalogue numbering from a date unknown. Apart from the numbering for the five black officials, these numbers are the same as in the current SG listing. It is the naming of the greens that is of primary interest (see enlargement at bottom.)
First Row: 1a red, ¼a pale brown,
½a vermilion, ½a rose;
Second Row: ½a orange-red,
1a greenish-grey, 1a bright green, 1a dull green;
Third Row: 1a blue-green, 2a red on yellow paper, ¼a black,
½a black;
Last Row: 1a black, 2a black,
4a black, 8a black.
The 1a greenish-grey, bright green, and dull green, respectively, according the SG numbers shown. We do not know when these numbers were added to the sheet. Under a glass the item in the middle is rather like the first, but with remnant green pigment beading over the surface.