Jammu Plate Watercolors
Starting in the late summer of 1867, this composite plate became the
primary production implement for Jammu, largely supplanting circulars except of course
for the 4a function. The lower-left position in the block is 1a; the other three positions are
½a. As with the circulars, no essays or proofs of the Jammu plate are known; likewise
the printing was done exclusively in watercolors on native paper to the summer of 1877,
thenceforth in oilcolors on both native and European papers to
May 1878. Stamps produced from this plate are generally scarcer in unused condition
than they are in used. Reference: Tim Eames India Post 29
42 (1995). Our letter code for this plate is J.
Perhaps only a dozen or so blacks in the ½a are known on and off cover. August 1867 is the
earliest date we have encountered in the literature for this issue (Lot 135 Kashmir Blue Sale).
We do not know a latest date, but the issue is said to have lasted only a couple of weeks or so.
As for the 1a denomination, only some half-dozen are now likely in collectors’ hands.
The detail shown here comes from an external Jammu to
Amritsar cover dated 27 bhādron 1924 ~ 10 September 1867 that bears neither
British postage nor evidence of a postage-due penalty.
Early Blue Watercolors 1867-68
Of the early Jammu rectangulars in “blues,” catalogues distinguish a number of shades, notably indigo, deep violet-blue, and deep ultramarine. Eames adds deep blue (seen on November 1867 cover) and a deep slate violet. These shades have counterparts in circulars (usually the 4a denomination) and some types are known postally used in both provinces.
Above: One may take a digital sampling from different places on a stamp surface to produce a kind of spectrum of its color make-up. Each color strip here was produced from the stamp shown above it. Among the few samples at our disposal, we already find a range of shades that do not fit tidily into the received naming scheme. The last specimen on the right shows a decided greenish cast in daylight, where green is also understood to be part of the indigo idea. The third item in the series above came with a certificate vouching for its deep violet-blue character, which we readily accept, but its deeper tones are like those of the second item, which we have understood to be an safe indigo.
Above: Detail of a 1a deep violet-blue watercolor from a February 1868 folded letter, ex Masson, and struck with the Jammu magenta seal.
Early Reds and Oranges 1868-73
Covers for which the Jammu rectangular in any shade of red is cancelled with the magenta seal are extremely rare, the earliest being perhaps a ½a salmon-orange on a May 1868 cover. Eames India Post 29 42 (1995) distinguishes this early shade from a later salmon-red known in the 1869-70 period. What is evidently a different salmon-red is noted by Garratt-Adams in Staal (p 98) as occurring uniquely between 1874-76. Most Jammu red watercolors are indeed attested from that late period.
Of the early reds, Dawson & Smythies speak of a “sort of brown-red, unusually clearly printed, and somewhat resembling an oil-colour.” We believe the cover shown above to be a likely example. The stamps bear the Jammu circular seal in black, extant between June 1868 and the spring of 1870, when the iron-mine obliterator came into use. This item is also the earliest postal attestation of any 4a red circular (for registration), and is a nice example of the color sharing that existed throughout the years between the rectangulars and the circulars, particularly in the 4-anna denomination. The cover, Jammu to Amritsar, is dated 6 māgh 1925 ~ 17 January 1869. Collection Hellrigl.
Above: The ½a salmon-red on native paper, 1869-70. As seen here on a January 1870 cover, it has a distinctive pinkish cast in daylight. By its dating alone, the obliteration would have to be the Jammu circle in the late black. The Jammu Iron Mine seal is not supposed to appear before spring. There are unlisted circulars of very much this pinky shade, but a bit later in the year to judge by the use of the iron-mine obliterator.
The ½a orange-red and ½a orange watercolors on native paper, beauties from the Faucitt collection. A rapid evolution from reds through scarcer red-orange hybrids to a purer strain of orange by 1872 was matched with contemporaneous counterparts in the 4a circular. The red-oranges are a bit more vibrant than the more subdued oranges.
Another ½a orange on cover, August 1874 mailing Jammu to Amritsar (without British postage, hence the postage due). Collection Hellrigl. Unused copies of the 1a orange are not attested, and only a couple or so in used condition.
The ½a scarlet watercolor on native paper. The earliest date we have recorded for this rectangular on cover is December 1873. It is shown above in company with a ½a circular of a very similar hue and cry, but which is not known in postal use. The latter may have been a color trial for the rectangular. There are close shades for both, some more orangey.
Late Printings 1874-76
The earliest of this late period (also known as the Jammu Special Printings) may be the
Prussian-blue watercolor on native paper currently in the Jaiswal collection.
This anomalous shade is not reported for the Special Printings circulars.
The ½a black watercolor on native paper. This is not a grey-scale image! Hellrigl collection.
The emerald watercolor on native paper. Catalogue prices notwithstanding, the ½a unused is reported to be rarer than the 1a unused, and the 1a used is the rarest of all (Dawson-Smythies p 14). There are probably fewer than a dozen of the 1a attested in any condition. The famous full block is shown on the back of the Dawson sale catalogue.
No yellow watercolor is attested for the Jammu plate (what a thought). It had been tried with the circulars and the stamp makers had evidently learned their lesson.
On left, the ½a dull carmine-red watercolor from a railway cover dated 20 September 1875. The second item, from our own collection, is a kindred shade in a rougher demeanor, including a darker paper. It is found on an assūj 1932 ~ September 1875 cover, which is to say, separated by only days from that of the first. Eames takes the pigment of this latter type (he calls it ‘lake’) to be distinct from, but “clearly related” to the carmine-reds (India Post 29 44, 1995). Claims for a April 1874 sighting might be questioned on account of the lunar versus solar calendar confusion that occurs for that month. It does seem a year early. Staal reports something in a ½a ‘gray-brown’ watercolor; its dating, status, and whether there is association with these anomalous groups is here unknown.
Some collectors assume that Masson’s “cherry reds” are the same as the carmine-reds mentioned above. One problem is that the items to which Masson refers were confined to the March to June period of 1876, some six to nine months later. Of the Masson stock, there were nine used copies in the ½a, and a single used copy in the 1-anna denomination. Séfi reports that “these were the only stamps in Masson’s collection which he had specially protected with transparent paper, but, though this suggested that he valued them highly, he did not, beyond a casual allusion to a cherry-red stamp, include them in his classified lists.” As to that 1a denomination, that is known by a couple of covers and uniquely off-cover (used) in the Hellrigl collection. It was said to be unique on cover in Dawson & Smythies (p 13) but Eames reports yet another, so their numbers do accrete by the decade. No unused copy has ever surfaced in either denomination.
The shade shown here is much more like the sort of cherries we know in our part of the world, so we privately call it “cherry-juice,” an undated watercolor on native paper. This shade also matches the ‘carmine-red’ of the SG Colour Guide rather better than the accepted variety does. Indeed, few of the color designations of the catalogue are close to the reference swatches given by the Stanley Gibbons Colour Guide. By Jove, it’s high time that something were done about this one way or the other.
Above: Another indescribable shade in the ½a from an undated cover. The range of the SEALKOTE cds, however, suggests either August 1875 or August 1876, thus overlapping the whole of the preceding story, unfortunately. In sunlight and under a glass, the stamp reveals some affinity with the chemically darkened type that begin to show up by 1876, see next image. There are hints in these of the orange-vermilion class familiar in the Kashmir 1a rectangulars:
Above: An example of chemically darkened pigment, rather early as these come, this having appeared on a railroad cover dated 29 maghar 1932 ~ December 1875.
Above: This anomalous shade is terrifically orange in daylight, and not much like these late orange-vermilions, nor yet like the early oranges either. Whenever it may have been printed, I call it an orange. Well, okay, a weird sort of orange-vermilion.
Above: Moods of the 1a, dating here unknown. The first is remarkably soluble in a water test, and the paper is inordinately polished, giving almost a gummed appearance. In demeanor and spirit it is reminiscent of some of the 1a bright blues shown next. Darker moods appear from spring 1876 with shade counterparts in the 4a circular. The third item is a deep rose hue with a winey aspect, vintage unknown.
Above: Shades of the 1a bright blue watercolors on native paper, 1876. The ½a is a rare item indeed, but it is known on cover (see next). Of course everyone asks why virtually all the stock of the lower denomination was destroyed:
An extremely rare used example of the Jammu ½a bright blue. This detail is from a cover Jammu to Amritsar (with railway sorting at Umballa) dated 22 April 1876. Gem in the Hellrigl collection.