Postmarks: Amritsar
Certain varieties of Amritsar datestamps that first appear on Kashmir mail were already in use before the advent of the State stamps. The following type, which exists in a number of cuttings, first appeared in late summer 1865.
° British serifed-UMRITSUR datestamp. This detail was taken from the first known cover, 23 March 1866. There is a picture of the full cover on our page dealing with the ½a circulars. The British marking was struck upon arrival on 29 March to which was added in manuscript the “jawab” notation seen here, dated 13 zelqa'de [1282] ~ 30 March. Other examples in different cuttings are gathered together here out of chronological sequence for comparison:
° Some cuttings over time: The tell-tale differences in the lettering occur rather strongly in the forms of the -SU-combination viewed as a unit. The squashed moths at the bottom could also do with a zoological classification. The type was used primarily as a despatch marking, usually in black, and as an arrival marking, usually in shades of red, which come in a broad range from deep reds to light reddish-orange. They persist in one cutting or another to summer 1872 in red and as late as summer 1875 in black.
July 1866
° UMRITSUR hexagon. Struck here in red for 20 July 1866, this is the
first attested use in Kashmir, but is known on other mail before the advent of State stamps.
Though scarce, it is sporadically attested to about the end of 1869.
It is also reported (Hellrigl) in black on 16 December 1875!
June 1872
° UMRITSUR POST OFFICE 1ST DELIVERY (and 2ND and 3RD.) The details shown here are for August 1872, August 1874, and December 1873. The first two are details from covers in the Hellrigl collection. The 1874 dating provides a latest reporting for the second type, though the cds itself had no year.
March 1874
° 1.DELY UMRITSUR. The scruffy example on the upper left dated Mar 9 is seen on a Srinagar to Amritsar cover dated in manuscript 14 moharram [12]91 ~ 4 March 1874, and is thus a candidate for first sighting. The example on the upper right, from (some) April, shows better what seems to be the same cutting. The example underneath is a different cutting altogether (this from an October 1875 cover.) Note the spacings between the D and E, for example, and how the T lines up under the E. There is also a second delivery type (no third) for which we have a nice early sighting for September 1874 in the next entry. As for a latest dating of the 1st delivery, August 1876 is definitely a possibility for a number are known from late July 1876, even though this date is already past that of the first sightings of the new AMRITSAR spelling in June of that year.
September 1874
° 2.DELY UMRITSUR cds. This is first reported for this date 11 September 1874, a detail from a cover in the Hellrigl collection. Since the 1st delivery type is already attested for March, we might be on the lookout for possible summer sightings. Maybe it was too hot for second deliveries!
May 1876
Above: Here is a late example (18 May 1876) of the 1.DELY UMRITSUR type on one of its last runs before the AMRITSAR type in the new spelling started to show up.
June 1876
It was somewhere around here 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. The new-spelling types come not only in 1st & 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 & 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.
° 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.
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. Lot 183 Blue Sale.
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.
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.
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.
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.
September 1888
Above: The curved AMRITSAR five-line delivery type. We have no sure advent date, but the horizontal delivery types and the preceding large-diameter curved type are known to this month at least, so these successors are placed here pending better information. Let us be on the lookout for 5-liners from late autumn 1888. The smaller diameter evidently necessitated the 5-line as opposed to the 4-line setting of the larger implement. 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.
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.