India : Script Query.

Great yarn Tony
it's fantastic these stories survive,
only problem, now I have to find an example

Not listed in my pages of anti theft markings

Rod, just went for a trawl through my Jaipur covers, and turned up another specimen. Not written as flamboyantly, but you're welcome to it. If you have a permanent address again, let me know and I'll send it across - with or without the superscription '74'. Would bush posties in WA recognise and be intimidated by it, do you think?

What you have to do to get a good curse these days. Boy oh boy.

Queen Kamla's soul bursting through her skull is quite heady stuff.

Sorry, I was just watching Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour's Road to Singapore, Zanzibar, Morocco and Utopia one after the other.

For Australian readers, I'm reminded of Barry Humphries' 'I hope yer chooks turn into emus and kick yer dunny over'.

What a weirdly wonderful thread. I'm still not clear about the "Hide Aruthdar" / "Ndidu Aruthdar" - is this the name of the house? I can see how the letters might be "Ndidu" or "Hide" ion the first envelope - but in the second they definitely seem to be "Hide". But I doubt very much it's anything to do with a tannery, surely they would have used an Urdu or Bengali word rather than an English one?

Emailed Tony,
(bush postie? no chance , this is 2010, from what I have noted
young lady, on 100hp Honda, reflective yellow waiscoat.)


Yep David, utterly confusing,
I can see Hide and the other, must be just a coincidence
that it was an area of Tanneries.

Of all the time we have been posting Indian material
we have never secured a collector who can read any of the covers
adequately, if he ever arrives, we shall kidnap him / her :)

Another example of a rather more basic anti-theft marking for you, young Rodney. Bhopal SG 47 (the 1896 1 Anna red on laid paper. It shows the sheet marginal rules at right and bottom, so it was position 8 on the sheet of 8.)



with the pen lines joining the stamp to the cover. For lovers of the Indian States, here's the back of the cover, completing a nice range of Bhopal cancellations:



And before you ask, Rodney: NO, you may not have it ...

English cricket scoring an orgy of runs,
...You will not give me the theft prevention.
Nothing can have me negative today, young Tony.

I have found a new and exciting blog link on Travancore stamps
Life is good.

(Nice cover BTW, looks expensive)

Yes, something will have to be done in Brisbane. Time to pull on the creams and flex the shoulder, I think.

Still, the Sun is shining here, and I gather it is over there in Perth too. And the Amex bill hasn't arrived yet for that Bhopal cover, so life isn't all bad.

Do we have an "artist's impression" or a clear
example of the square bhopal cancel hammer?

I have only seen on other and that was more like a smudge.

Your cover has almost a nice one.

any comment on the fine grid strike on this one?

Rod, I think that's the best example I have of the rectangular cancel. However, there was an article in the India Study Circle journal a while ago showing examples of genuine and forged Bhopal cancels which may give a clearer specimen. I'll try to hunt it down.

The cancel on your ¼ Anna Tiger is part of the big ornamental CDS used at several Bhopal State POs later in the piece. Here is an example on a postcard:



(On H.H. Begum's Service = On Her Highness (the) Begum's Service = official use)

It's often found from the Shish Mahal office. The Shish Mahal was/is a palace in Bhopal, at that time used - at least in part - by the State taxation department...

Thanks Tony,
gee I missed that grid part of the CDS
well done you.

Rod222, I'm surprised you're still allowed to live in Oz, given your comments not only on this strand but also on the "cricket" forum strand you started.

I must declare an interest - first as a UK resident, but also as a South African - Australia are our traditional sporting rivals, so it would be good to see an England team triumph over there (particularly as England relies mostly on South Africans for their batsmen!).

David, Rod222 lives in Perth. Western Australia has always been a thorn in the flesh of the rest of the country - they actually tried to secede back in the 1930s - and Perth is half-way to Durban already. Need I say more?

Thank you gentlemen,
just confirming we like a contest in Aussie

Ah! South Africa home of the magician Barry Richards
those were the golden days of cricket,
no advertising, no tacky monograms on the field, the stumps
or the shirts.

and I must defer to Tony, without the Victorians we would be really struggling right now.

Now, what about Rugby? let's say Scotland vs Sth Africa, Hehehehe