Postmarks: State
Ungummed “adhesives,” individually handstamped in watercolors, were inaugurated in March this year by Ranbir Singh, Maharajah of the State between 1857 and 1885. Pen-cancellation aside, the only State postal markings for 1866 are in the form of seal obliterations used at Srinagar and at Jammu.
March 1866
° State Seal Srinagar. The seal shown on the left was in use as chief obliterator for more than a decade with brick-red pigments, and in black on its last runs in 1877-79. Its first appearance is on the back of the first known cover, dated 23 March 1866, for some function not obliteration, perhaps serving as a despatch marking. The inscription reads munshî dâk Srînagar ~ Official Post Srinagar. The second b/w image is taken from plate 2 of Séfi & Mortimer. Those authors tacitly presented this marking as an earlier franking use of the Srinagar seal in black in the pre-stamps period. Though the inscription is the same, to our eye the implements must be different; note specifically the starkly different shape and positioning of the word dâk at the lower-right.
April 1866
° Jammu sorting seal. This strike in a brownish red appeared on the back of the Hellrigl cover mentioned above, 1 April 1866, and predates the first sightings of the Jammu seal in magenta. The inscription is only partially readable by us as dâk [...] Jammûn ~ post [...] Jammu. It is reported again in black next month, May.
° State Seal Jammu. While this implement was in theory available from day one at Jammu (where the first stamps are presumed to have been printed) its marking in magenta is not actually attested until mid-April 1866. Like the Srinagar seal, it too was struck in black on its final runs (1868-70) after which it was replaced by the Jammu iron-mine seal. It was thus a significantly shorter-lived implement than the Srinagar seal. The inscription reads Jammûn dâk khane ~ Jammu Post Office. Inspection of the final-n so prominent in the scan suggests that the impression is mirror-reversed, and that is indeed the case. The second image is an extravagant example, in the form of a transit marking, of the more typical smudge that this implement usually provides.
May 1868
This month is the end-date often ascribed to the use of the Jammu circular seal in magenta. It was also the likely advent month of the Jammu Reds (in rectangulars, not circulars yet.)
June 1868
° The Jammu Seal in black. Strikes are seen only in black from June 1868 into the spring of 1870 (when it was superseded by the Jammu Iron Mine seal.) Given that red pigments had just been introduced, we suppose that the change was to accomodate sensitive souls who do not much care for the idea of magenta on salmon.
April 1870
Someone should rummage the Jammu iron-mining archives to see if a certain handstamp seal appears on any of the paperwork—and then try to bribe the curator (for the good of philately of course.) The seal was fashioned in 1858, some six years before the advent of the State stamps, but starting in the spring of 1870 (mid-April perhaps) the seal began a long active service of more than nine years as the chief obliterating instrument in the Jammu post office:
° The Jammu Iron-Mine seal. The impression of this implement often goes by the name of the “Jammu square” or the “black square” even though its corners were truncated to form a kind of octagon. Impressions, as above, generally show the corners as rounded. It replaced the Jammu circular seal that was being struck in black at this time (and indeed since that summer of ’68.) The first word mohr ~ ‘seal’ is to be found in the lower-right corner of the design. Stacking upwards right to left we have mohr-e âhan-e kân-e jammûn 1915 ~ ‘Seal of the Iron Mine of Jammu 1858 AD’. The seal retired from service in August or September 1879, i.e., during the early New Rectangulars period. The impression seen above is in the form of one of the 1981 Staal-Sharma strikes in purple ink.
° Large Ladâkh Seal. This refers to the pale sort of pinky-buff strike in the lower part of the scan. The two smaller and prominent black seals are those of Srinagar, acting here perhaps as transit markings or more assertive cancellations. The dating of this detail, from a registered cover in the Jaiswal collection, is 12 mâgh 1935 ~ 23 January 1879. Given that the New Rectangulars have been in use for about eight months elsewhere (and at Leh too) the use here of Old Rectangulars at this time is anomalous. Perhaps remote Ladâkh in the height of its winter was resorting to old stock. Now we have a candidate for what the large seal actually looked like, as well as a reason for placing the seal back here in 1872 even though no cover evidence places it so early. (The Bard listing reports 1874 as an earliest sighting.) The following are Staal-Sharma restrikes made in 1981 from implements found in the Pratap Singh Museum in Srinagar. They are indeed about 28 mm across, the first good sign. Which one, if either, of the two seals shown below matches the pinky impression above?
Tests with digital masking reveal in fact a good match with the item on the left, with the -kh of Ladâkh and the -n of Jammûn lining up as well as it ever happens. Unfortunately we cannot quite read the inscription at the top. The inscription on the other item appears to be berang/dâk khâna/Ladâkh sarkâr Jammûn/1929 ~ ‘Bearing/Post Office/Ladâkh, Government Jammu/1872.’ The first is the same, except the dâk seems oddly prefixed. Of interest too on these seals is the much overt mention of Jammu authority, not Kashmir authority, in Ladâkh. The latest sighting so far is April 1879 and a strike in black is reported (Bard) for October 1882.
° Small Leh Seal. We have been speaking of the large Leh seal as if there is a smaller. The implement is indeed referred to in the literature but so far we have not encountered a description of a cover bearing one. Its reported size (about 18mm) and color (red) mean that it might be mistaken for the Srinagar seal—and conversely. As we have seen above, some mail from Leh did receive a transit marking at Srinagar, and some may have been posted there (Garratt-Adams in Staal p 111)
April 1873
Now here is a remarkable thing: the use of the Jammu square seal as a transit marking in 1873. We can all choose different names for its color. With thanks to W. Hellrigl for the image.
October 1876
° DAK JAMMU seal. This obliterator was struck in black watercolor and enjoyed a long, if sporadic, period of use from perhaps October 1876 into the New Rectangulars period. For what seems a late example, Lot 284 in the Blue Sale exhibits a November 1878. The Persian is mohr-e dâk jammûn ~ ‘seal (of the) post (of) Jammu.’ It was forged in oilcolour for cancelling some of the circular missing-die forgeries in the very late period. It or the forgery is also known in other bits of uncertain and dodgy fare along the way, such as its use for cancelling otherwise virgin postcards. The scan here is one (of eight) of the Staal-Sharma restrikes done in purple ink in the summer of 1981.
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.
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.
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.
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. 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 been conjectured that it might thus stand for mahsûl for postal ‘tax’ or ‘fee’. Boggs, in a minority opinion, offered that the symbol stands for the Persian word sahîh, which means ‘correct’ or ‘passed’, a device known from documents. Or the symbol may well represent the numeral “1” in a somewhat odd rendering. The latter is our vote if we have one, for there was a great industry later for producing other numbered obliterators, albeit with only nine bars set vertically. These were done for all the numerals from 2 to 9, with the 1 noticeably absent. So the 12-bar might then have been the precursor and inspiration for that series. In any case it is always safe to call it simply 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.
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.
1884
The Baramulla type of closed-box obliterators (next image) first appears this year. 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.
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.
May 1889
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
November 1894
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 is a 1935 with a George V stamp.