This page continues the chronology by taking the story from the time when all the stamp-printing implements were held at Srinagar, spring 1881 at the latest, to the eve of the so-called “Unified Period,” when the native postal operations began the process of being assimilated by the British Imperial system.
1881. Nepal issues her first stamps. 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. 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).
° 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) 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 Native stamps. The Persian at bottom of this cover reads “from Jammu 21 assūj 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 Native 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 Native posts.
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 over-reacted this year and crowned himself king of Serbia.
From January 1882 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.
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 āt' ~ 8 maghar, no year as usual. The same cover contained the following item, the scarce L-bar in square format for Leh:
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 famous Leh bisects of April and May 1883.
1883. Two extraordinary and dramatic events mark this year: The eruption of Krakatoa in August and the alleged introduction of the New Colors Issues for postal use. This is also the year of the Leh diagonal bisects; the first wave occured in the April-May period (e.g., Sturton Sale Lots 300-302) 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. New Colors are in fact are quite scarce in 1883 and we would show one on cover if we could. That is why we sometimes refer to the New Colors Decade as 1884-94.
Above: The year number is now added, perhaps from November 1883, to the FIRST and SECOND delivery types for Amritsar. 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.
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.
1884. Germany claimed several colonies in Africa. Sholem Aleichem published his first novel, Natasha, in Yiddish this year. If it’s not our imagination, there seems a relative dearth of dated Kashmir material for 1884. Dawson & Smythies state that in early 1884 the ½a plate took on its final-state (our Plate State IV) characteristics. Auction catalogs show much use of the older 1a oranges, not the new 1a greens of naïve expectation. Kashmir circular date stamps take on year-dates; merciful that, if belated. The Philatelic Review 6 47 1884 published a nostalgic article on the circular stamps of “Cashmere.”
The Baramulla type of closed-box obliterators first appear in 1884. 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.
The first of the curved SIALKOTs appeared, possibly in March of this year, and several species emerge through the years, right into the final year of Native operations. Good date ranges are elusive:
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 is 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 and 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.
° Second LEH datestamp. This type, which appeared in March 1884 and lasted beyond the closing of the Native 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.
KASHMIR with year, beginning perhaps in April 1884. This type 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 and 1890 inclusive, the December inserts read DFC instead of DEC.
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 above, which may have debuted in July 1884, is known into 1892.
1885. Ranbir Singh dies, and his son Pratap Singh will rule between 1885 and 1925, and therefore presides over the Native 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 and 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.
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.
Here again is another style of the Srinagar L-bar oval obliterator from May 1885. It differs from the example shown in the preceding entry by having a shorter base, and differs variously from the 1880 type. These are also to be distinguished from the short-base Sialkot type (1881) and also from a later variety seen in 1892.
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.
1886. The turmeric staining ingredient that was used in the early ⅛a 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 4a 6p 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.
This large diameter curved KASHMIR datestamp was used primarily, as here, on registered mail from January 1886. (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.
Curved KASHMIR DELY types in five-line display. The Bard listing cites 1886 for their advent. A formalized REG(istered) version in this small diameter type appeared in spring 1889 [as did as a very rare PAR(cel) type] when the large diameter type (previous entry) was retired after its lengthy if sporadic service.
The datestamp with Dogri inscription is the late version, from August 1886, of the Jammu Circle in which the ‘Jammu’ is rendered with the ma- element in place of the va- (1878). 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 types were active to early 1891 when they were replaced by the 3-ring datestamps for Jammu.
1887. This year is associated with the re-introduction of laid papers, but in a type that are very thin (~ 0.05 mm) compared with those of the 1878-79 period (~ 0.10 mm). 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 and author L. Dawson was born this year.
The Large Srinagar Circle (“The Blob”) is known perhaps from May 1887. A typical example of the name ‘Srinagar’ in Dogri lettering is shown enlarged in the second scan. The example on the left shows a remarkably clear strike as these come.
And here is an example of the same in purple ink. The circle is about 28 mm in
diameter, and thus larger than its Jammu counterparts. The venue remained
unidentified in Séfi. Several authors have taken it (as well as the
9-bar-9 obliterator shown next) for Jammu markings despite much postal
evidence to the contrary. There is a cover shown in the May 1889
entry below that suggests that the Srinagar Circle may have been
used at the Native office at Sher Garhi. It is known in both receiving
and despatch duties, the later use to the end of 1890.
The 9-bar-9 obliterator, so named for the Dogri numeral 9 in the center, was used at Srinagar from spring 1887, and 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-9 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.
The Jammu 10-bar obliterator is attested from perhaps September 1887, and will be known into late 1890 or early 1891.
Well, this is what the Jammu 10-bar obliterator looked like a couple of years from now. The later thin-line Kotli-type is shown below in the May 1892 entry. There are other types that we despair of distinguishing.
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 1888 section below, i.e., the types that superseded them.
1888. E.B. Evans concluded his series of seven notes on the stamps of “Jummoo and 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.
The 9-bar-5 Native obliterator. A provisional sighting, the first reported. The central numeral is to be compared with that in the accompanying Staal-Sharma of the implement in question. The date on the piece is 1945, which corresponds to Apr 1888 to Apr 1889. Though we have inspected the item under different lighting and magnification, and have made a digital mask, we have not fully eliminated the possibility that it is a devilishly misleading strike of the common 9-bar-9 shown upscreen. If it is indeed the 9-bar-5, it is unfortunate that it was removed from the cover, which no doubt revealed its provenance and full date.
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. The example here is February 1888.
A date-range and venue for this distinctive version of the L-bar is not known for certain; it is
likely of Sialkot and perhaps as early as 1887. The schematic on the left is Séfi and
Mortimer’s, their Type 48.
The curved AMRITSAR five-line delivery type. We have no sure advent date, but the horizontal delivery types are known to at least September 1888, 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.
1889. This year is not exactly a notable one unless you find the advent year of the smooth white woves something of note. 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.
Here, as promised, is the formalized version of the Srinagar registration datestamp that replaced the large diameter circle. This smaller diameter circle, which is first seen perhaps in April 1889, 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:
Shown next are a couple of scarce railway markings for the Sialkot-Jammu run. The embossed Victoria is cancelled with the rare L.51 circle on 22 May 1889 and the Native 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 garī (~ 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 jeţh ~ 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.
A few more of the 9-bar-n obliterators are attested rarely in the 1889 to 1891 period. Some dates are given in the Bard Papers link. Whereabouts of 9-bar-8s are unknown, but Masson knew of it on cover (his infamous “fishhook” photo having been much reproduced). The common 9-bar-9 is shown in the 1887 section, and what is possibly a 9-bar-5 in the 1888.
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 Native, markings. Native 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.
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 rare 9-bar-6 is attested autumn 1890.
The 9-bar-7, used in purple as a transit marking on a postcard dated 4 January 1891. It is also known in the usual black, venue unknown, up to at least October 1891.
An unidentified 9-bar, detail from fragment dated October 1891, Jammu to Kishtwar. Kishtwar is a seldom-seen destination on the runner-line east and north of the junction at Batout, itself east and north of Jammu. Image taken from the internet.
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. 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 summer of 1890.