Postmarks: Sialkot
The Sialkot office was #54. The station at Simla was #55, but examples of Simla and Kashmir postal connections are unaccountably (?) scarce given that British officialdom involved with Kashmir often took leave at Simla. The celebrated Edwardian railroad to Simla was constructed only after our period.
° British curved SEALKOTE+54 duplex and the Srinagar seal cancelling the 1a royal blue watercolor. The (separable?) duplex was in use between June 1865 in the pre-stamps period into perhaps early September 1867. The 54 must be distinguished from early and late species used with different datestamps: a scarce pre-stamps version known from 1864 can be seen in the Bard Papers on site, and there is a ringed-54 known from 1868. The detail shown above is from a cover in the Hellrigl Collection. The Victoria stamp is the ½a blue Die I, wmkd elephant head, issued in 1865.
September 1866
° SEALKOTE Open-Circle cds. This example is one of at least two
cuttings. An earlier by some weeks (Jul-Aug 1866) was done in black in larger lettering.
The red is reported sparsely over the rest of the year (Sep-Dec 1866.)
The corresponding open-circle type for UMRITSUR ceased service
just shortly before the advent of the State stamps. The image shown above is a detail from a cover in the
Jaiswal collection that included the following special marking:
° Diamond of Dots (9×9) obliterator. Together with the
SEALKOTE datestamp shown next (the K version, not the C version) this British obliterator was
applied by the Sialkot City Mail Agency, as opposed to the Sialkot Exchange Office itself. Reference Bard.
The image is a detail from a cover in the Jaiswal collection that included the preceding open-circle datestamp.
W. Hellrigl reports also a late strike of the diamond in blue for September 1869.
October 1866
° Serifed SEALCOTE and SEALKOTE datestamps. The C-type datestamp was known already in the pre-stamp period and will outlive its K-type partner by as much as three years. The C-type is reported to be of the Sialkot Exchange Office while the K-type is of the Sialkot City Mail Agency. Both types are found sharing the same cover from October 1866 (hence this entry here) in shades of red, oranges, and black. As seems a tradition now, black only is seen in the last years of usage. Reports differ substantially about dates. There are also different cuttings (cf. the April 1868 entry, where the basic type is found in duplex use with a circled-54 obliterator.) The K-type is assumed gone sometime in the summer of 1871, though we have heard of a report for May 1872. The horizontal unserifed SEALKOTE + L-3 duplex supplanted the C-type in July 1874.
November 1866
° U-26 obliterator. This implement, used by the Sialkot City Mail Agency, persisted in sporadic use for about two years, to December 1868, when it also appears in violet. The marking is significantly wider than it is tall. This image is from a detail of an 1867 cover in the Hellrigl collection. This type is not to be confused with another U-26 obliterator of squarer shape surrounded by a circle seen in November 1870 where it is found in duplex with a rare serifed SEALCOTE CITY datestamp in arc.
April 1868
° Serifed SEALCOTE + 54 duplex. This implement is known from April 1868 and is attested to as late as perhaps February 1874. The image is a detail from a cover in the Hellrigl collection. The cutting of the cds section is slightly different from that shown upscreen in the October 1866 entry.
July 1868
° SEALCOTE triangle. This marking is known from July 1868 into the spring of 1870. The type, which was used on covers lacking British postage, had no overlap with its later counterpart in the CASHMERE triangle, which came into use at Srinagar after Kashmir was admitted to the Punjab Circle (example downscreen under April 1871.) There are several other triangles of this type, Ferozepur for example. Whether such others figure in Kashmir stamp doings we do not know. The red-orange shown above is a detail from a January 1869 cover in the Hellrigl collection.
November 1870
° Serifed SEALCOTE CITY cds in arc + circled U/26 obliterator, rare. The cds (alone?) is reported also for June 1872 by Séfi. The much more prevalent unserifed type is known only from years later, see Nov 1877 entry.
July 1874
° Horizontal SEALKOTE + L-3 duplex. The implement was of the separable type, and the L-3 obliterator section stayed on for many years in other employment with other datestamps when this cds and other cuttings like it disappeared toward the end of 1876. Reports take the obliterator to as late as summer 1880. Not only do distinct cuttings exist for the cds portion (see for example next entry) but Séfi & Mortimer report that the type occurs with 1st or 2nd delivery notation, which must be decidedly scarce.
° L-3-8 duplex. A rare variant of the preceding 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.
September 1874
° Horizontal SEALKOTE cds Type II. This variant is characterized by the notably by the larger lettering and the idiosyncratic broken-S that nudges more closely to the circle. Another distinguishing features is the anomalously short L. This type did not supersede the earlier, and both are known in contemporaneous action to the end of 1876.
AD 1877
° Horizontal SIALKOT cds. The older spellings now give way to this new and final form. Two cuttings above are out of chronological sequence (the second from a January 1878 cover) 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.
The separable L-3 obliterator continues its labors and will be seen with several of the new Sialkot datestamps, such as the example seen here, until summer 1880. The obliterator section is first reported in 1874.
November 1877
Starting this month (reference Bard) all mail from Jammu was routed through the Sialkot City facility. A possibly associated SIALKOT CITY cds (next image) may have first appeared at this time, though Séfi & Mortimer report the type to have been extant within the 1876-77 period.
° Curved SIALKOT CITY cds, unserifed, this from February 1878 (thus postdating Séfi & Mortimer’s posited end date.) Later, rare, unserifed 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.
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.
AD 1881
° Sialkot L-bar (circular-shaped.) Not only is this marking more circular than the Srinagar L-bar type, the ratio of the base to the height of the L is significantly less. 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.
AD 1884
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:
March 1884
First, 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 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.
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:
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:
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.