Indian Feudatory States [1st Post (Hyderabad)]

New Entries

This will be my first post about the stamps from the Indian Native States, and I will start with the Hyderabad stamps..

To talk a little about the history of this region, I must turn back to the days where the Mughal empire ruled.. this Empire was born under Central Asia Turkish-Mongols guidance that had it's roots deep into the Genghis Khan ( founder of the Mongol Empire) and Timur (founder of the Timurid dynasty) Era...The region became part of the Mughal Empire in the 1680s, however, in 1724, when the empire began to weaken, a Mughal official, Asif Jah, defeated a rival Mughal governor to seized control of the empire’s southern provinces declaring himself “Nizam-al-Mulk” of Hyderabad ; In 1798 Hyderabad was added to the British Empire as one of the princely states of British India and in 1948, the government of India , using Military force , incorporated Hyderabad into the Indian Union...

please read (Excellent site)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now, speaking in Philatelic Terms, these Indian states could belong to 2 different categories:

A) Feudatory states : where all subjects related with the emission of stamps are treated by the Local Government, so these states issued their own stamps...

B) Convention states : where there were some protocols with the Central British India Government , regarding the emission of stamps...so overprinted stamps from British India were issued for those states...

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hyderabad was one of the Feudatory States , and the emission of stamps began in 1869...I don't have any stamp from the 1st and 2nd emissions (1869 and 1870), with two different designs , non pictorial stamps...Unfortunately I don't know any of the regional languages, because that is an important detail for the correct understanding of these stamps (there are many native language labels in these first Hyderabad series, and we should be able to read them..!)

I will start this presentation with stamps from the 3rd series, issued in 1871/1909....it is yet a non pictorial series, but a very interesting one with lots of hot spots, color shades, errors, etc...

I want to say that all the stamps of this series are in very "bad shape", but  I have to show them.. it could be useful to someone, and above all they are my own stamps..!

in the picture above some "hot Spots" are shown, but I don't have any of them to present to you... so the stamp showed is a normal stamp, and the following explanations will help you to understand what is at stake..

A) if The small dot presented above the central inscription is missing...

B) if the 2nd leftmost dot is missing

C) if the top dot of the Circular Central Label is missing 

D) if The leftmost part of the Circular Central label is missing (in Blue)

 

 [Type 1] the Central Circular shape has a circular frame with ornaments (small circles)  and above that , another circular line (in the stamp's color) ; the ornaments touch the external  frame line .. 

[Type 2] The ornaments (small circles) don't touch the central external frame leaving some empty spaces.







I only have stamps from the first 3 values of this series (0.5A,1A,2A) , but I can say that the designs are altered from value to value.. not only the external frames and ornaments change but also the lined background of the Circular Center , chaotic in the 0.5A, horizontal in the 1A and Horizontally waved in the 2A...

Now lets focus on the next important subject related with this stamp... ; there are 3 main perforations to search for... 11.5, 8 or 9 and 12.5... my stamps are all 12.5 perforated and we could say that these are the least expensive and the most common among them...

for these 0.5 A stamps with 12.5 perf , the catalogs talk about  5 possible colors, plus several shades : red brown, orange, orange brown, brick red, rose red and the Magenta error...among the first group of 8 stamps above , there are several of theses colors...
The only one 1A stamp I present is in lousy condition, but the other I had was in even worst condition, with a great part of the perforation missing... I decided to present only this one. I think it is the drab (dull brown) variety ... 
The 4 2A stamps present us , the blue Green (1st), the Pale (Yellow) Green (2nd), the Deep (Yellow) Green (3rd) and the Deep Green (4th)...I must tell you that the first 3 2A stamps are from type 2 and the last one from type 1...
1871/1909 Series (Plates by Bradbury wilkinson)[Recess (Hyderabad)] Sc(4,5,6)


[Left] in 1905 this design was used for the first time.. we can see that  at a first view it seems identical to the previous one, but  with 4 main differences: the label "Postage" at the top, instead of "Post Stamp" , the inscriptions and design in the Central Circle ,an empty central circle background and differences in some of the labels ...this is an 1909/1911 official stamp, an overprinted version of this stamp...
[Right] this design appeared for the first time in 1915 with the top inscription "Post & Receipt".. it is also an overprinted version..

......................................................................................................................................................................................................

Let us now go to the 1931 series, that contains non pictorial and pictorial stamps...some of the designs are very good and beautiful, but I only have two of the values to present ....

The overall design of this 4p is very beautiful and well engraved by De La Rue...I want to say that a strong Turkish influence exists in this stamp, with the Crescent Moon and star in prominent position...  it is a great disadvantage the fact that I cannot read the inscriptions, because it should  be of great help in all of these stamps...we can see that even in these black stamps, there are some different shades, perhaps due to the different printings...
Another fact related to these inscriptions is that in the Muslim world there are great Calligraphy specialists, even now in our days ( some of them are also stamp Designers in the countries of North Africa) , and it is perhaps one of the oldest Arts taught in the very old Muslim Universities...You can see the responsibility that the British engravers of De La Rue and other companies had when they were doing their engraver work , doing something that others learn for a long time and where the position of lines and dots is essential and the minor fault had enormous consequences..This was "the  precision work"  by Excellency if We can say this from the already highly detailed work of an engraver...the stamps of the 2nd group are Official stamps, overprinted in 1934/1944...

These are my 1A stamps, representing the Charminar

As you can see several shades of brown are presented, and many more exists...the details of this beautiful design are more or less visible in each one of the shades possible...the two last stamps are again Official stamps overprinted and issued in 1934/1944...

1931/1948  "Views of Hyderabad" (9) [Plates by De La rue][Recess (Hyderabad)] Sc(39,41)

1934/1944 "Overprinted stamps from the 1931 'Views of hyderabad' Series"  Sc(O46,O48)

...................................................................................................................................................................................................

I don't known nothing about these stamps.. they are revenue stamps, but I only found one photo in Ebay, but nothing about the issue date or any other technical data... there is no information in the catalogs, of course....if you know something, please release me from my ignorance..!

It is the end of this first and short post about these very interesting Hyderabad stamps... AH..!(please take a look at the rightmost stamp above , and to the top right corner's frame... something happened there...I almost forgot to talk about this...)

SeeYou