Travancore Postal Stationery

A cover - I would appreciate it if someone might be able to tell me the date of this cover.



A fascinating postcard, with writing in English from 1868.

Smauggie, since Rod222 seems to be off on one of his bike rides, I'll have to the best I can here.

My Malayalam calendar doesn't stretch quite far enough back, but I make the date on your cover to be 1898, and from the manuscript '68' in the date on your card, I think this should be six years earlier, and hence 1892. I'll leave it to others better qualified than I to give you a definitive answer, though.

Thank you Tony,
I was avoiding the post, as I was the bike ride,
It's freezing cold here, (for western Australia, 9 degrees)
I have yet to fit a Kent Tile fire to the stamp den
and I am here making love to a tiny single bar heater....Brrrrr
I can't seem to function when it is cold.

I had isolated my Travancore Bible (Dr N S Moos)
because the dust jacket was getting a bit tatty,
and when I looked for it for smauggies post,
I find it is completely lost

I have reconnoitred three times for it through the bookcases
but it avoids detection.

I'll post when it it stops being anti-social and decides to
make its presence felt.

Rodney, it's equally frigid over here on the other side of the island, and wet with it. (I write to the accompaniment of the gentle hum from the clothes dryer, drying sheets.)

You probably did the decent thing, and threw Moos on the fire to keep your self warm.

I know the feeling well.

I wasn't joking either ...

What is Moos?

Those animals that hang around in fields and produce milk, Smauggie. Fancy you not knowing that.

My 4 yr old daughter's favourite joke -
Q - what do cows have for breakfast?
A - "Moosli"

Of course, there is also a book on the postmarks of Travancore by a gentleman called Moos. I believe only two copies were ever printed. Rodney has one, and the other copy was lost when Julius Caesar burnt the Great Library of Alexandria in 48 BC.

Q: How do you get rewarded, when sitting under a cow?
A: A pat on the head.


The Good Book, The Tabernacle of Tasty Treats,
the font of great Indian stamps, (not spud prints)
The Tome, the filibuster of Indian filately.....

The Magical Moos........