The Visitors’ Plate

The Second Kashmir (Visitors’) Plate appeared in the summer of 1867, possibly July. It consists of two strips of five, the upper and lower being of ¼ anna and 2 anna denomination respectively. These values are thus half and double those on the First Kashmir plate and served for the special half-rate provision allowed visiting Europeans to Kashmir on regular and registered letters leaving the State with attendant British postage. The ¼a was done in black watercolor only, and is quite a common stamp unused. The 2a was done in shades of yellow, and are rare on cover. Oilcolor reprinting was done with the plate in a repaired state. Four rivets were driven into the plate along the central line.

Proof. The unique ¼a + 2a grey-black watercolor proof sheet of the visitors’ plate. It was found in the record book of its engraver, Rahat Ju, and now resides in the Hellrigl collection. Another proof of the ¼a as a single (position #1 on the plate) is chronicled, Haverbeck Lot 1395. Were it not for its recorded provenance, the stamp itself is indistinguishable from the issued type.

The ¼a ‘black’ watercolor on native paper. The series above show something of the range of presentation. The first on the left looks as if it has been thoroughly soused, the paper being left with only a kind of staining. These quarter-blacks are common, but not nearly so common in postally used condition or on cover as catalogue prices would suggest. It is possible that numbers of used examples were ruined when they were soaked off cover by early collectors who did not realize that the pigment was soluble.

Here is a little early oddity on piece with a “Compagnie des Indes, Kashmyr, [Maison] Verde-Delisle & Cie” seal. Delisle frères received the Legion of Honor and other medals for their celebrated lace manufacture, which was exhibited at the Paris Exposition in December 1867. The Kashmir ¼a black watercolor was extant since the summer of that year, so we like to suppose this item was somehow in aid of their show.

The 2a Lower Strip

The 2 anna issues, covered the visitors’ preferential registration rate for letters leaving the State. We saw the 2a done in proof with grey-black watercolor. Pains seem to have been taken not to print the bottom row in black again, nor the top row in yellow (what a thought) for they have never been reported. The 2a is seldom found on cover.

The early 2a buff watercolor on native paper. While often ascribed to 1868, it may have appeared not long after the ¼a black the previous summer. Despite the paucity of material, buff was a long-lasting issue. There is an example as late as January 1872 in the Jaiswal collection. The stamps are known, e.g. Haverbeck Lot 1436, cancelled by crossed strikes of the British TOO LATE marking.

This is the earliest known use of the 2a yellow watercolor, a rarity in the Hellrigl collection. It is an external registered cover Srinagar to Amritsar (Katra Ahlûwâlian) dated 22 baisâkh 1929 ~ 2 May 1872. The State stamp is matched by two 1a British stamps, plus the 4a British stamp for registration, a total of 8 annas with the Umritsur cancellation in a rare red and a manuscript registration cachet. Séfi & Mortimer specifically mentioned their never having seen a dated cover of 1872 bearing the 2a.

First, Our regrets and apologies for displaying such a trenchantly disturbing crease on the 2a gold. This item is really classified among the yellows, though in daylight it has a distinctive cast that certainly invites thoughts of gold. The other, which has undergone some interesting chemical adventure, we call ‘lemon-yellow’. The moss green at the top is variously diagnosed, and until we know for sure we’ll call it moss. The printing business knows of a lemon-yellow powder called ‘auripigment’, arsenic sesquisulphide, which was the alchemists’ orpiment of yore. It was also used in painting. One rather suspects that the moss is some sort of sulphur phenomenon. Somebody knows.

Auripigment is also mentioned in the literature (e.g., Staal p 109) as referring provisionally to “gold-like specks” that appear sometimes in the yellow stamps. Masson I (p 20) refers to specks of mica. In any case, we have two matters of interesting chemistry to explain, the Mystery of the Moss and the Secret of the Golden Specks.

Non-postal Material

Watercolor non-postals from the Visitors’ plate are rare. The Haverbeck sale Lot 1393 claims to have offered the only known copies of the ¼a (as well as the 4a, and 8a) outside the Tapling Collection. The thin rose-tinted pelure papers, along with black watercolor counterparts in the 4a and 8a, were once thought to have been early 1867 proofs, but they are now understood, I mean assumed, to belong to the 1877-78 transition.

Non-postal. Item left: This grey-scale reproduction is the ¼a black watercolor on very thin pelure paper (the famed 1877 ‘onionskin’) offered in the Haverbeck auction Lot 1394, from which this illustration was taken.

Non-postal. Item right: The 2a yellow on thin horizontally laid paper, position #3 in the strip. Despite its watery demeanor, the pigment does not pick-up in the familiar way in a water test.

Non-postal Material (1877?)

Repairs were eventually made to the plate, but not during its postal period. Perhaps in 1881 four rivets (no half measures here!) were driven into the horizontal line between the rows and a regime of reprints ensued.

This way to the Visitors’ plate oilcolor printings†.

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