The First Kashmir Plate

The first Kashmir plate consists of twenty half-anna subjects in the upper four rows, and a strip of five one-anna subjects along the bottom. While the older literature cites a spring 1867 advent (and demise) for the plate issues in black, the advent date has been pushed up considerably with the finding of at least three covers bearing a ½a plate-black in the October 1866 to February 1867 period, though none so far in the 1-anna. With the ongoing use of the ½a single-die black and the ½a circular black, we have in fact three sorts of half-blacks sharing postal duty over that first autumn & winter of the Kashmir State service. If some division of labor among the three types was intended, it was not a strict or evident division.

Proof. The unique plate proof in watercolor. This item is clearly the best thing for checking the 20 different plate varieties of the ½a. Identifying the positions is facilitated by noting that for the upper ten subjects (top two rows) the va, which looks like a large comma in the left side of the oval band at about the 8 o’clock position, is placed low with respect to the horizontal lines of writing within in central area. For the other two rows, the va rides noticeably higher. Collection Hellrigl.

the black postal issues

The ½a black Kashmir plate watercolor (plate position #10) in earliest known use: 24 assûj [1923] ~ 9 October 1866. The letter was mailed to Amritsar without British postage, without sign of postage due charges, and without jawab notation. Though undated as to year, an October 1867 reading would be unaccountably odd for this. (We have presented here, for a change, something of actual note from our own collection, yay us!) The stamp is rare in unused condition.

Above, another E1.0 in an early 1866 jawab mailing, again to Amritsar without British postage. The dating on the flap in the lower section is 6 mâh rajab sâl 1283 ~ 14 November 1866. The jawab date on the stamp side shows the pick-up about a week later: 14 rajab ~ 22 November 1866. A similar cover, ex Mix, was dated in the same week, and others are known for January & February 1867. Collection Hellrigl. The latest reported use that we have seen for the plate ½a black is 9 May 1867.

The 1a grey-black watercolor on native paper. The cover is a jawab from Srinagar to qasbah Katra Ahlûwâlian at Amritsar. The reverse shows the despatch on 25 zelhejje [1283] ~ 30 April 1867 without British postage. The pick-up date as per the jawab notation on the stamped side is 28 zelhejje ~ 3 May 1867. Ex Dawson Lot 323. The earliest known use of the 1a black Kashmir rectangular may be a Srinagar to Amritsar cover in the Hellrigl collection, dated 11 March 1867. The previous record was sometimes given to Lot 1390 in the Haverbeck auction, a cover dated 27 March 1867. We do not have a latest date of attestation for the 1a black.

The 1a Blues

One disadvantage of the overall ½a + 1a black printing was that the two denominations could not be readily distinguished at a quick glance. The two portions of the plate were later to be printed separately in shades of blue for the upper ½a rows and in shades of orange from the bottom 1a strip. The entire sheet was printed overall in blue at least three or four times in about as many shades. The earliest of these 1a blues are from April 1867.

A startling example of both colors of the 1a serving together in a June mailing: The 1a ‘blue’ and the 1a Venetian red watercolors together. This detail is from a Srinagar to Amritsar jawab cover dated 20 June 1867, a gem in the Hellrigl collection.

Period forgeries. A 1a bright ultramarine watercolor on native (left) and on European laid paper (right.) The blues on native paper are rare, the example here being ex Ferrari/Hind, ex Eames. They are rather good imitations of position #3 in the lower strip of the plate. A key clue is that the vertical white lines in the spandrils are missing. They are assumed (for reasons here unknown) to date from around 1870. A version in dull ultramarine is also known, as are specimens in black and orange. The laid paper variety was not mentioned by early commentators, and is added here to the chronicle (cf. Dawson-Smythies p 22.) Versions in dull black and orange-red are also reported, the latter on wove paper as well as the laid. Evans and Séfi & Mortimer referred to the positive likelihood that the circular obliterations are faked.

Period forgeries. The 1a blue, grey-black, and indigo watercolor on native paper, 1870? The name “flying-yek” has been used for these on account of the distinctive and excessive upward tilt of the Persian yek. The grey-black was once listed by Moëns as being a genuine stamp, and the example on Staal Plate 8 from the Spellman museum (passing for the authentic 1a blue) is also another example of this type. The Gibbons catalogue once listed several colors in numbers SG97-103, assignments long since supplanted, and these may have involved the flying-yek type. Masson discusses this forgery in his 1900 book in Chapter VII, the “Three Hoary-Headed Impostors” chapter (on-site.)

Period forgery. Some reds of the “flying-yek” type are included here so to keep them with the others. Above, an unusual tête-bêche pairing on thin, slick, almost waxy paper (damaged unfortunately.) Red might seem a little curious for Kashmir half- and one-annas as there were no such reds to forge on the Kashmir side, but one gets used to “forgeries” that bear no relationship to postal issues. The item on the right below has a distinctive plummy cast to it in daylight:

The ½a Blues

Blue stamps were the work-horses of the Kashmir postal system for over a decade. After July 1867, a great range of demeanors and shades are seen. A systematic accounting by year, if possible, invites all comers. Distinctive shades mentioned by Eames are deep grey-blue, violet-blue, and chalky-blue. Great contrasts also in the sharpness, blotchiness, and wateryness abound.

A ½a ‘powder blue’ watercolor on native paper. A distinctive shade in daylight, dating unknown.

This a detail from a cover dated 20 January 1872. Sometimes the Srinagar seal in red was particularly oily, and a murky surface such as this remains to us. This stamp was annotated by Masson as “½a indigo”, a shade nowadays usually associated only with Jammu printings.

The ½a grey-blue watercolor on native paper. A distinctive shade, detail from an October 1875 cover.

The ½a chalky blue watercolor in a watery print on native paper, date unknown.

The ½a bright blue on native paper. This shade is something like those of the rectangular and circular Jammu special printings of 1876. Something much like it, however, is also seen on significantly older covers, September 1867, and others.

The ½a dull ultramarine watercolor on native paper. A distinctive shade and demeanor, detail from a May 1876 cover.

What may be an earliest sighting of the Srinagar seal in black is given in this detail, dated in the lower-right corner 28 Jeth 1934 ~ 8 June 1877. A digital mask confirms that the striking implement is indeed the same. This use of black must have been sporadic at this time, for strikes in the brick-red are still the prevalent occurence until November of the year, when black became the rule. They are known until August 1879 in the New Rectangulars period.

A late happening of note: A bisection of some ½a watercolor blue was done to serve for the ¼a visitors’ rate. It is known on a jawab cover for October/November 1877, that is, in the transition period when use of watercolors was already mostly history. Watercolors persisted at Leh for some time, even into the New Rectangulars period.

Period forgery. The ½a orange-red watercolor on native paper. It was produced from an illegitimate single-die that proves itself wrong in a number of particulars.

The 1a Oranges

The earliest printing was known to Séfi & Mortimer as Venetian red and ascribed to the 1867-68 period. The example above (shown again, a cover detail from the Hellrigl collection) is paired with the 1a blue color anomaly. The early Venetian red has an early shade match in the 8a Kashmir single die.

The 1a brown-orange watercolor on native paper. The British Cashmere date stamp, known first in 1867 with the opening of the British summer office at Srinagar, is used here as an obliterator of State stamps, a usage known in the 1870 season on covers where British Indian postage was insufficient. Date insertions are not present on these late examples. It was also used as sorting date stamp on such covers (Bard.)

Another 1a brown-orange in a more watery demeanor, this obliterated with the Srinagar seal on an internal Srinagar to Jammu cover dated 2 mâgh 1926 ~ 13 January 1870. The 1926 appears in the merchant script also in the second line from the top.

The 1a orange watercolour. This is indeed an orange. Could it have appeared at the time of similar orange printings at Jammu in the autumn of 1872?

The late 1a orange-vermilion watercolor strip on native paper comes in a variety of demeanors. Some are more subject to chemical discoloration than others. What follows is a very late, and also very special use of the 1a orange-vermilion:

Leh bisect misdated. The 20 phâgun 1934 seen in the Persian and the Dogri translate to 2 Mar 1878, whereas the arrow bears 1877. The Haverbeck auction (Lot 1590) curiously misdates this cover even further back, to Mar 1875. Image from Plate 17 in Séfi & Mortimer.

phâgun 1934 ~ March 1878. The 20 is the in preceding line on the cover, and there is a clear(-enough) 20 in the Persian.

Before we go, a further taste of the orange story. Again, much is undated, but no matter, they do make for a lovely autumnal scatter. The two postal markings in the lower line graciously attest to late assignments in the orange-vermilion era.

Non-postal Items

A number of very rare printings unattested in postal use have (for reasons here not known) been assigned to the transitional period June 1877-May 1878. They are divided in fact into two regimes a year apart. Roughly speaking, the first sports watercolor pigments on novel papers, the second sports the new oilcolor pigments with a reversion to more familiar papers. The upper E segment of the plate is represented by a ½a milky-blue watercolor on a thick white meshed laid paper, all the rest were taken from the lower strip of the plate. This regime of non-postal watercolors is seen to follow the traditional color coding of the postal material, i.e., blues for ½a, oranges (or chestnuts) for 1a, yellows for 2a, greens for 4a, and reds for 8a:

Non-postal. A 1a brownish-orange (chestnut?) watercolor on sturdy wove paper, position #2 in the strip, from the Lunn Collection. This is a hitherto unreported item. Three kindred trials have been reported: (a) The 1a orange watercolor on thin pelure wove, a translucent type that strongly reveals the printing impression through it. (b) The 1a chestnut on thin wove bâtonné, which is said to be unique. And (c) the 1a chestnut watercolor on thick laid paper, Lot 1399 in the Haverbeck sale. (The strip position of the latter is #2, not #4 as stated, call the cops.)

Staal p 145, following Haverbeck, following Moëns, lists also a 1a yellowish brick-red watercolor on white laid paper. Séfi & Mortimer wonder if this is not the ‘chestnut’ of trial (c) above. The white laid papers are known to to exhibit particularly broad laiding lines.

Summary: Watercolor Forgeries

Tabulated below are the period watercolor single-die forgeries of scattered mention throughout this page:

This way to the ½a + 1a oilcolor printings†.

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