8a Single Die

This was the third of the Kashmir single dies, and likely the last-carved of the handprinting implements. Late summer or early autumn 1867 is probably the consensus. This denomination is known only in a range of red watercolors. The handstamp was not found in the Pratap Singh Museum in 1981, though the implement was indeed defaced with the others in 1898. Postally used copies of this high denomination are scarcer than catalogue prices would suggest. Oilcolor reprinting was done in a variety of red-type shades, black, and an alleged ochre. Our letter code for this die is L.

Unique Proof of the 8a die in grey-black watercolor on native paper. Scan taken from Séfi and Mortimer Plate 15. What are the white patches? Well, we now have it on authority (the item is yet another prize in the Hellrigl collection) that the ‘patches’ are indeed holes. The paper “must have appealed to some Kashmiri bugs.” The whole is rather darkened by smoke or dirt.

8a Watercolor Reds

It is by now no surprise that a range of reds are seen. The item on the left below is the distinctive 8a Venetian-red, the traditional name.Tim Eames believes this shade (his brownish orange-red) to be the early printing of 1867, and it is matched in shade by the early printing from the lower row of the first Kashmir plate. The curious item on the right shows something of the nature of its pigment by its very thick application. Séfi & Mortimer speak of an 8a deep rose, but that we are told is something else.

In addition to a subtle shade mysteriously called red, there are also printings in vermilion, bright red, bright orange-red, and carmine-red. Curiously, these have clear counterparts in the Jammu rectangulars and attendant circulars, which raises the interesting question of formal pigment sharing between Srinagar and Jammu, or even the possibility that the ‘Kashmir printings’ might have been carried out still at Jammu for some period of time.

Non-Postal Watercolors

A number of rare items in watercolor, presumably paper trials, were produced with each of the Kashmir implements. While the use of European papers suggests the transition year 1877-78, strictly they remain undated. As to color, these productions largely recapitulate the historical record of the postal material, i.e., ½a blues and 1a oranges, ¼a black and 2a yellows, 4a greens, and 8a reds. These Kashmir productions thus stand in a kind of parallel with the Jammu experimental papers (laids and woves) of the same period, the difference being that a few of the latter (all oilcolors) found their way into actual postal service.
    As to the representatives of the 8a die, the subject of this page, the item in the corner is a grey-scale reproduction of the 8a brick-red watercolor on thick white horizontally laid paper. The image is taken from the Haverbeck catalogue, Lot 1402. Garratt-Adams (Staal p 110) reports a postally used copy (struck with the 5/L-6 British Srinagar obliterator) having very broad laiding lines. The 8a black on rose-tinted pelure has counterparts in the 4a die and both values of the Visitors’ plate. Séfi and Mortimer, in spite of the paper, take these blacks to be early proofs for the original issues, 1867. As to the white pelure shown in the table, we must make reference to Haverbeck Lot 1410, which that catalogue calls bright red. We do not know if it is supposed to be the same.

And here above is a curious item in the oil class, which we include here just because: An 8a brick-red oilcolor on white vertically laid paper, and partially gummed. Séfi & Mortimer chronicle such for 1878, though make no mention of gumming. These are sometimes known as “die proofs,” terminology that we don’t use on account of the late date. All three circulars appear in this precise shade and demeanor of pigment (but on native paper and no gum).

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