Indian Princely States - Jammu & Kashmir A Selection from the Dan Walker Collection June 12, 2018

17 The Gibbons catalogue now list five of the red shades as special printings as follows a half and one anna red SG 12 and 13 respectively, a half and one anna orange-red as 12a and 13a respectively and a one anna orange SG 13b; no half anna orange is listed. SG 26 to 37 (June 1877 to 1878, handstamped in Oil on Native Paper) SG 26 (Lot 10056) SG 35 (Lot 10069) Jammu started printing in oil colours in 1877. The first series was printed on native paper. It should be noted, however, that the circulars were also frequently reprinted in oil, and great care must be taken to distinguish these reprints from the originals. The main criteria for distinguishing between the two are that the reprints are clearer and printed on thinner and more smoothly surfaced paper. The differences in colour between the water and oil printings is that instead of the deep black water colour, we find a grayish black oil colour, not entirely dissimilar to the gray black water colours or the first issue. Instead of the bright blue, (orangish) red and emerald green of the water colour we find slate blue, (brownish) red, and sage green in oil. All oils are mottled and heavily blurred, but the sage green is particu¬larly smudgy. One variety of the ½ anna black exhibits a curious embossed effect, which is probably due to the impressions bring struck on soft clamp paper Most varieties exist in used and unused condition, the unused being the more common. This contrasts again with the contemporary Jammu oil rectangulars printed in the same pigments, which are always rarer in unused condition. No undoubted copies are known of the 1 anna in black (not listed in Gibbons), and no used copies have been reported of any of the ¼ rupee (4 annas) value. The ½ anna value of the slate blue is relatively common in unused condition, but this may have some connection with an assumption that has always been widely held that the slate blue stamps were never reprinted. Since some of the existing copies are printed rather clearly, this assumption may need to be questioned, if they are always unused these could obviously be reprints. At the other extreme from the slate blue stamps are the sage green varieties, which have always been scarce, exceedingly so in used condition (in which the ¼ rupee—4 annas—value, as we have just seen, does not appear to exist). These are among the most difficult stamps when it comes to distinguishing the genuine from the reprints. The genuine copies are in “mottled green and yellow” (Dawson and Smythies), “very blurred, ink caked upon the paper” and “on unusually rough paper” (Sefi and Mortimer). The reprints are clearer but not as clear as some of the reprints in other colour; the paper is, as usual, smoothly surfaced. Under magnification the oil colours show oily patches that are invisible to the naked eye. Magnification also shows that the sage green oil colour consists of two distinct colours: an olive green which is relatively flat (like the water colours) and an emerald green that projects from the surface in globular oily spots. SG 38 to 48 (June 1877 to 1878, handstamped in Oil on European Laid Paper) SG 47 (Lot 10072) Jammu started in 1877 to experiment with various papers in addition to the native paper. While the Jammu old rectangulars are known on European laid and wove, and even on laid bâtonné papers, the circulars exist only on European laid (barring the local paper and a single variety on wove). While the Jammu old rectangular varieties on these special papers are all exceedingly rare, the series of circulars on European laid comprises only one rarity, which is however a major philatelic rarity. Fortunately, no reprints are known on European laid paper, so that the