Recent British-India Acquisitions

Stampguy64

Nice cleanup job on that old Hong Kong 30 cent stamp with the CC watermark. It shows the watermark much better now. I sometimes clean the backs of stamps myself, removing layers of old hinges, to reveal the watermarks. I use as little water as possible, as some inks are fugitive, applied to the back mainly, with a spray bottle, and then I lightly scrape off the old hinges.

My take on this stamp is that it had glue applied to the back to fasten it to a burlap sack, or similar material. They used to slather the glue on the stamps, front and back, so they would stick to the mailing bags, which is why you have glue around the edges on your stamp. This is not the stamp's original gum you saw on the back.

Another clue: I also see some fibers, possibly from the burlap, still stuck to your stamp after you cleaned it. This would also explain why you think the stamp is "deformed somewhat, not square and true." It was mailed on a burlap sack, or similar bag of fabric.

Scanned below are blocks of China stamps from my collection that I acquired in a bulk lot of old covers that are glued to burlap, slathered in glue as previously mentioned. I will never try to remove these stamps, as they will remain "on piece" to show how stamps were mailed on fabric many years ago. I also have a canvas bag in my collection with 1960's Hong Kong stamps applied to it in a similar manner.

Linus

Hi Linus,

I have a lot of those types of stamps, of my late father's, in envelopes, somewhere. I've been wondering about them, off and on. They need sorting.

Yes, that does sound likely. I was wondering about those fibres. I thought I needed a new drying-book. If I'm not mistaken, one 30c could have packed off 15 letters, locally at least.

Note the darker corners of the backside of the stamp, before I restored it. Those thin pieces of bluish, greyish paper were a bit stubborn, and had been entombed by the glue. I don't think that they were hinge-remnants(?). Also, I knew all along that that was not the original gum, and I suspect that that's why the violet inking was preserved. In any event, thank goodness the glue was water-soluble.

Alan

Stragglers that I received about a week ago or so...

East India, 1873, half-anna in blue, die II(re-drawn); "Da Bomb"...


...and another...


...again, much confusion among the 1855, 1865, and 1873 issues. Caveat emptor...

Half-anna blue, die I(1855, 1865) & die II(1873)...


All of the other values and colours bore die I portraitures, and were never re-drawn...

East India, 1865, 1a in brown...


That one clearly shows the first, die I portraiture of Victoria.

Thanks for those great images showing the dies of the Indian Victoria issues, StampGuy. Way more detail than in my generalist catalogue.

Thanks, DeeBee.

This is one I got several years ago, and this presentation should mop up the East-Indian issues, for the time being anyway...

East India, 1865, 2a in brownish-orange...

Admittedly, I first thought it was the 2a orange of 1855, white paper, which is rarer, but the elephant's-head watermark on the reverse cannot tell a lie...

I did not need to restore that one. Fresh as daisy it was upon its arrival. Although, it might benefit, albeit only a little, by going "under the knife", so to speak.

Within the cancellation, the purple letters, "...S K N O...", elude me as to a place-name...

It may be a precursor to the perfin, that of a business, or company.

Incidentally, I don't collect perfins, as I don't like BB-holes in my stamps, unless it's mandatory, as within this example...

Great Britain, 1887, 2d in grey-green & carmine...