The Native Postcard
As to postal stationery, we refer the reader to the J&K pages in the important Deschl reference: Comprehensive India States Postal Stationery Listing, Edward F. Deschl (1994), hardcover. Séfi & Mortimers account can be found in this on-site link: State Postcards ►
Just a few images here as a gesture. The native card (denominated ¼a) comes in different sizes, papers, watermarking, colors, shades, and plate states. A number of production anomalies are also recorded, such as a double-sided card in orange. One notable feature is the presence or absence of a spot that appears to the lower-left of the sun emblem. It is understood to be the impression of a rivet used to repair a break in the plate, in early 1891 according to one rumor. The plate state that shows the plate perilously askew just prior to the repair is shown first. These are scarce; the example here, in orange, is an example in the Jaiswal collection:
The ‘black official’. This card is not reported in postal use. Collection Jaiswal.
The Dogri to the left of the sun emblem reads posţkārd kalamrao ~ postcard of the realm. To the right: jammu kashmir va-tibbat hā, where Tibet refers to “Little Tibet,” i.e., Ladakh and Baltistan. The second line reads: “is taraph sivā pate ke kuch na likhe’ ~ this side except address, do not write anything (ref. Staal p 132). The denomination inscription (pāv ānā) may be found at the bottom of the coat-of-arms.
Postally-used cards show a preponderance of 3-ring postmarks of the post-1890 period, though the card itself had been around for a few years. While much of this late use is authentic, there is also a good deal of fraudulent play and productions of a merely philatelic nature.
Late usage. There are several cases known in which the card was used after the closing of the Native posts, though not in any official capacity as carrying postage. The latest that we have heard tell of is seen in the Blue Sale Lot 395, a March 1914 mailing to Salzburg, Austria, employing a pair of ½a George V. The card does not show the rivet impression, signifying that it had come from early stock.
The Defacement
This scan was taken from the b/w photograph on Séfi/Mortimer Plate 46. An impression of the defaced postcard plate (one of ten prepared on wove paper) was offered in the Haverbeck auction, Lot 1596. Another impression can be seen in Staal p 159, with the signature of a certain Rev. R.H. Knowles, one of those who presided at the defacement ceremony that solemn February day in 1898, four years after the closing of the Native posts.
Two of the 1981 Staal-Sharma restrikes of the postcard stamp itself. The one on the right, being defaced, was the one that had originally been part of the postcard plate. Though hard to see here, it does does show the same pattern of defacement gouges as in the preceding scan.
The undefaced item on the right has no denomination inscription on the bottom. This basic arms design was also used with the telegraph stamps, but on those productions the several denominations were inscribed on the sides.