The New Rectangular Plate-states

Four of the New Rectangular plates (¼a, 1a, 2a, 4a+8a) are traditionally divided into two starkly separated conditions known as “State I” and “State II,” the latter characterized by screw-head impressions in the margins of full sheets. The received story is that these appeared when the plates were rebedded after their removal from Jammu to Srinagar in 1881. The ⅛-anna plate (1883 Srinagar) never suffered such treatment, and its slightly evolving condition over time has somehow elicited little in the way of public fascination. It was meant for the visitors’ half-rate privilege on the ¼a postcard at Srinagar, but was little used. Images that can be used for plating the New Rectangular issues can be reached through these links:

⅛a    ¼a    ½a    1a    2a    4a    8a

Six ½a Plate States

What follows are six scans that follow the history of the ½a plate. The account is more involved than the others by virtue of a broken section along the top of the plate, and by virtue of rivet impressions that appear and disappear over the course of time. The accounting that follows interpolates a plate-state type that has been ignored hitherto. Thus our State IV is the State III of the older literature.

Black Watercolor Proof, perforated. We have reproduced here Séfi & Mortimer’s Plate 35, which shows what may be the earliest state of the plate, though those authors suggest that it might have been produced somewhat later than the first issues in red. Certain rivet holes in the expected places are not wildly apparent (compare next scan).

• State I. The earliest postal printing at Jammu is characterized by the white crack line along the top of the plate that was evident in the preceding scan. Just above the crack line is an example of a rivet hole containing a well-executed rivet. Do keep an eye on the rivet site near the lower-right corner, for it figures in the rest of the account.

• State II. The upper segment of the plate above the erstwhile crack goes missing and so too a number of rivets, leaving holes. New rivets, not so well executed, have also been reintroduced into the four corners, evidently to re-bed the plate to a new base. These will again prove insufficient. Whether this repair work was actually done at Jammu on account of the crack problem or later at Srinagar is not obvious and the matter invites a closer study of the dated postal material. Séfi surmises that the missing segment at the top was removed during the disbedding of the plate when it was being prepared for the removal to Srinagar, and this new state represents the condition of the plate shortly after its rebedding there with the four new rivets. It is our duty to be on the lookout for this state of the plate on earlier-dated material.

• State III (rare). This state is characterized in particular by the presence of a rivet impression in the lower right margin that was missing in State II and will go missing again in State IV. The scan shows that this rivet somehow caused the paper to tear when the sheet was removed from the plate surface. Perhaps this or some other nuisance about this rivet was deemed trouble enough to warrant its forthwith removal. A number of other rivets have also been added, and the quality of the work has continued to deteriorate. The new rivet heads evidently projected slightly above the plate surface; for in that case the large ink-free annular regions around each head can be accounted for as a result of the heads depressing the paper surface. Scan from Geoffrey Flack. Do see the discussion by G. Harell in India Post 39, 129-32 (2005).

Three views of the lower-right rivet position. The middle scan, taken from Plate 31 of Séfi & Mortimer, shows a curious example of the State III situation. It shows a printing of the ½-anna plate in tandem with a State II 1-anna plate (as indicated by the screw head impression in the floral margin). The existence of this image in Séfi & Mortimer was fortuitous, for it revealed the existence of the rare State III condition of the ½a plate to those of us who were unaware of it. We do not know why those authors did not ascribe it separate plate-state status. Our fifth image shows what happened next, what we must call State IV:

• State IV. Usually called State III in the literature. Notice that the rivet in the lower-right corner is gone (again), leaving a hole in that position, as in State II. This scan shows the condition of the plate in the late period, an impression on the thin laid paper (>1887). This plate state is by far the most commonly seen, and was printed in black on smooth, thin, white paper in large quanities in the late period, possibly for dealers and collectors, and thus act much like a reprint. Caution: Recently there have appeared photocopies that work pretty well given what they are. What was the advent date of this plate state? Dawson-Smythies affirm that the characteristics are seen from early 1884 (on dated cover?) Someone has some telling data about a possible earlier appearance (my notes suggest 1882, but without a reference).

• State V. A black and white scan of one of the Staal-Sharma purple-ink impressions made in August 1981 from the defaced ½a plate. This impression shows that the rivets could indeed be removed successfully, returning the margins of the plate essentially to State II conditions, apart from the four corner rivets, which are now also missing.

While we are at it, there are a couple of other curiosities of the ½a plate. On a freshly-cleaned plate one may see a style of so-called “Maltese” cross in the left margin, just beside subject 4. Though it does show up on some rather early State I sheets, we do not know if it is a feature from the very beginning of the production. Brighton forgeries of this plate, which come in ½a brown-lake and scarlet on medium wove paper, are said to show the cross very clearly—too clearly and too large in fact, all in evidence of an ill-conceived modification of the plate by the forgers. Should we ever come across an example, we promise to put its image in this section.

Some authors refer to the disfiguring scratches as seen above in the left scan. Such are in variable evidence depending on the heaviness of the impression and on how well the plate had been cleaned. Shown here are early and late plate states showing the phantom scratches. In heavy inkings even the cross may not appear.

Numbers are scraped in the margin of this corner example. You will discover that an attempt to inscribe numbers with this appearance on sheets today will fail. One concludes that the operation was done at the time of printing when the ink was still wet. But no actual etching of the plate ever took place the way it had been for the cross.

Plating the ½a

What follows is a higher-resolution scan of the ½a plate in State IV that can be used for plating work. Descriptions of earlier plate states can be found in the foregoing.

Plating the ¼a

We have no example of the ¼a plate in state I to show, that is, without the four screw repairs. There is an example in red on Staal Plate 12. An example in full sheet of SG112 in the laid paper is pictured in the Sturton Sale as Lot 278, and examples of sheets on medium wove were sold in Lots 295-6, all reds. Blues and blacks were not done at Jammu in this denomination.

Sometimes in heavier inkings, the empty screw-heads are filled in.

Plating the 1a

We have no example in state I of the plate with border showing. There are examples in full sheet on laid paper and medium wove paper (SG106 and SG119) shown in the Sturton Sale Lots 270 and 297, respectively. Another example on the rare thick wove paper can be seen in Staal Plate 13. Again, all reds.

The Urdū bālā that occupies the rivet positions at the top of the integral-denominated sheets means just that: “top” of sheet.