Not One For The Printed Album Brigade

... but if you appreciate the bizarre and eccentric in stamps, this block of Poonch SG O4 (2 Anna Official on laid paper)



may tickle your fancy.

The printers used to rule neat spaces in pencil on the paper, to help with the placement of the stamps. It appears that the printer on this occasion may have returned to work after a long, convivial lunch, in no mood to be dictated to by lines on a page

If you told me a year ago that this sort of thing was a block of stamps I would have thought you crazy. This is really fun. Thanks Tony.

Smauggie, I'm delighted to see signs of weakening. We'll have you falling about in raptures over Bhor yet.

And as someone else suggested to me: imagine trying to perforate that block ...

Totally bizzare!
It is tempting to collect random large multiples from anywhere in the world, in any particular order.

Old ,new,mint,used, faults, flaws or not! Post marks could add some depth as well.
Interesting KGV.

Where do you come up with these Tony ? That sheet is so ugly it just screams of character :) What an odd and different piece, thanks for posting it.

That is not ugly! It is a thing of beauty and a joy forever...

Stampgal, you're well on the way ...

You do have to be wary of the Uglies, you know. They're like cats. One moment, you're sitting there, minding your own business, just thinking of this and that. Next moment, you look down, and there's a contented cat curled up on your knees.

You'll find the same (and Stallzer and Smauggie): one day you'll look down, and find a Kashmir Old Rectangular curled up, purring, on your knees.

Signed - One Who Knows

Oh, and just to prove that it is possible to print within the little squares, here is a comparable effort from Kishangarh,



the ¼ Anna rose-pink of 1899, also printed one at a time. No lunchtime drinkies for the printers of Kishangarh!

While you're on the line Tony, you are probably the perfect person for this question. I have a lot of the India 1 Anna stamps with the "Nine Pies" surcharge (I think they are the only ones of that type. Would a block of 4 or 8 with a gutter bring any sort of premium to these ? I know their value is not much but I'm going to toss them out on ebay to thin the amount I have.



I'll lop off the right top and bottom ones and make it a block of 6 or 4, are they still just 30¢ Stamps ? Thanks

I don't even think I could even navigate that with scissors Tony!

Thanks for showing - can you send me a chunk?

Stallzer, I'm afraid I don't think you'll get much of a premium for your gutter block. The gutter blocks were heavily bought up at the time because some of them contained one of the listed overprint errors (NINE NINE or PIES PIES).

It's a long shot, but Gibbons lists an inverted watermark, for the rose-carmine shade of the 1 Anna stamp, at £120 used and unpriced mint. Worth flipping the block over and having a look, anyway!

And you want a chunk of four, BeeSee? Not a chance, mate, not a chance ... I'm not touching the star exhibit of my Poonch collection!

As far as I can see, there's only one manageable block of far, in the top left . . .

My theory is that they started sober and were drinking on the job - the further down the page, the more all over the place they go. A wonderful pic!

Does Spock have any info?

You might carve out a block from the bottom left, with a bit of fancy scissor-work

I doubt that Spock would approve though. He doesn't like the real Uglies like this - unless they have (unhinged) gum on the back, and proper perforations

See, I would never have purchased that I would have been sure it was a fake made by 5th graders in art class...

it amazes me what turns out to be real, and then what looks real is fake...

Edwin,
never trust your eyes, only the SCF!

Edwin, if I told you that I paid just over €1000 for it ...