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

23 SG 87 to 101 (Kashmir Old Rectangulars 1866 to 1878} The issues exclusive to the Kashmir Province, embracing a period of twelve years (1866-1878), are singularly free from such complications as attached to those of Jammu. Throughout this considerable period, Kashmir retained its original practice of printing in watercolour on native paper without any exception whatever. Unlike Jammu, however, this Province produced a number of proof and allied impressions, for which a varied assortment of papers and pigments were employed. The fact is not surprising when we contrast the single little plate of four subjects which was all that Jammu received, with the much more extensive supply to Kashmir of dies and plates shown below: 1866 ½ anna single die 1867-77 4 annas single die 1867-77 8 annas single die 1867-77 composite plate of ½ anna and 1 anna 1867-77 composite plate of ¼ anna and 2 annas SG 87 (September 1866, ½ anna single die black in watercolour on native paper) SG 87 (Lot 10111) Masson fixed the commencement of this issue from a cover dated 3rd October, but catalogues have followed Evans, who tentatively suggested September. We have found no authentic record of any used in this month, and Masson’s record should stand (Gibbons lists September 1866). The stamp is rare in any condition, and excessively so unused. We have only once seen an unsevered pair of these stamps, this being in the Beckton Collection. This die alonewas, for some unexplained reason, the only one among all the Jammu-Kashmir dies and plates, which was not produced, in 1898, for official defacement, and a Reprint might therefore still be a possibility (but highly unlikely after more than 80 years has elapsed since this caution was written). As, however, it is the only Kashmir impression which was not reprinted, the probabilities are that it had been destroyed at some previous period.