The sense of amazement and awe was palpable (I clearly remember that), and I believe it was in its most pure and nascent form, which manifested in my constantly scrutinizing the bits of information that stamps in my possession would carry. An Omani (?) stamp depicting a Tarsier acquainted me with the elusive and nocturnal animal, and stamps from Congo made me aware about the fact that it was a Belgian colony not so long back in past. Almost like little bits of facts and factual information that Graham Greene describes very succinctly as “useless bits of information stick to the mind, just like barnacles stick to the bottom of a boat”¹. But then, what is life but a traversing and collection of everything signifying the random.

Other competing hobbies took over sometime during that blissful period of childhood and those diaries were stashed away in the store, not to be looked into for many years, gathering the dust of utter neglect. By the time I was in the high school I still didn’t know the rudiments of philately, I had definitely experienced the exhilarating feeling of being a “collector”.

My exposure to philately (as the more technical nomenclature for study of postal history is usually referred to as) was somewhere around 2004, when having worked for a couple of years certain surprising circumstances got me back in touch with a pursuit that i had left long time back.

In the contemporary setting, apart from realizing what a detail oriented field philately was, I also realized how it was being slowly and steadily becoming decadent with entry of people who considered stamps and postal history as nothing but “revenue multipliers”. It would be perfectly fine as a business venture that is gaining ground and establishing philately as an established means of generating capital, but unfortunately this is accompanied by declining interest in people (and especially children) to pursue philately as a hobby.

I myself question very frequently whether I would be satisfied as a collector or a philatelist and seeing the metamorphoses that this age old hobby is going through I have decided to do a bit of both.

¹ Graham Greene “Monsignor Quixote”, Pp. XXX,

The so-called “classic” pre-independence philately usually points towards the stamps/philatelic material from the pre-1947 British occupation period. From the knowledge that I have till now this definition of “classic” is probably due to the better printing techniques and the pioneering use of stamps as revenue generating instruments (India was one of the first British colonies to introduce a standard postage system post the introduction of Penny Postage in the UK).

Well, the point I want to make (irrespective of the definition of ”classic” wedging in) is that before starting to look at the philatelic material, stamps etc. it makes sense to understand the colonial structure that was in place in India. This would give the twofold advantage of enjoying the historical context [people might disagree to that] and understanding the value of what you are looking at [very important for a collector, it seems so].

Hence this post on French India which would hopefully traverse the various Indian colonial reigns and the philatelic history/facts associated with them.

Vital statistics of the French Indian settlements in india (Taken from Scott 2007©)

LOCATION FRENCH INDIA —East coast of India bordering on Bay of Bengal.

GOVT.—French Territory

AREA—196 sq. mi.

POP.—323,295 (1941)

CAPITAL—Pondichery

French India was an administrative unit comprising the five settlements of Chandernagor, Karikal, Mahe´, Pondiche´ry and Yanaon. These united with India in 1949 and 1954.

Denominations:

100 Centimes = 1 Franc, 24 Caches = 1 Fanon (1923), 8 Fanons = 1 Rupie

1999:  I went to study engineering in the city of Patiala

2009:  I moved to the city of Hyderabad for work

The common factor- all these were Princely States of repute in the pre-independence India. When I say repute, I do really mean it, as these states were goliaths amongst the 600 odd princely states that constituted most of what we now refer to as India.

Philately made me realize the historical significance of this journey of life, undertaken so far, albeit with the regret that if I could turn back time I would have definitely made an extra effort in exploring the bylanes and alleys of these cities, searching for the historical evidence that is residual on these small pieces of cut paper we call stamps.

Writing this note from Hyderabad, and writing in retrospect, it gives me a strange feeling of elation that in spite of  having such a long association with these places, visiting them again is going to be such an exhilarating experience. The nook and crannies that I didn’t explore, the eminent philatelists I didn’t have a chance to get acquainted with and the local museums and heritage monuments that I deigned visiting unecessary and unimportant would all seem bathed in a new luminuos light.

This is the light of erudition that cities and past can shine upon us, the light that can perhaps make us see and understand the ramifications of compassion and human folly at the same time.

I conclude with the hope that I’ll write notes after notes whenever I visit Patiala or J&K. Meanwhile, I have the Nizam’s dominion beckoning me to explore it to my heart’s content, before some twist of fate moves me to some other Princely State.

The booklet has 20 special definitive stamp of Re.1 depicting Gandhi from normal sheets, Rs.20, Maharashtra Circle, India Post. Issued in quantity of  2,000 at the Tata Press Mumbai commissioned by Philatelic Bureau Maharashtrara.

The third official booklet issued with a beautiful line sketch of Mumbai GPO on the cover page of the booklet. I was fortunate to get a lot of 5 from a UK based FDC/ special cover seller who probably didn’t know the philatelic significance of this limited number issue (2000 would definitely be a limited number for a booklet issue in India !!).

Images for these booklets are attached for all to see

Close Up of booklet

Awesome foursome!!

Hyderabad has an illustrious pre-independence history (which was hallmarked by the reluctance of the Nizam to merge with the Indian state in 1947, for which he even asked for Joseph Stalin’s help ). It was the largest princely state in the pre-independence British India with a highly developed system for postal communication¹ and logistics.

My first jaunt took me to an area of the city called as Abids, where the Hyderabad GPO is located. Located centrally in the heart of the city (Just like the Parliament Street GPO in Delhi) the GPO has a beautifully positioned Philatelic counter for which one has to climb a old school wooden staircase leading to a room which has philatelic notice boards on two opposite sides. Though the displays are a little dated and somewhat haphazardly put up it provides a very professional look to the philatelic wing. This is in stark contrast to the dull and bland look that the Delhi GPO has which looks like an extension of one of the many counters there (a  solitary noticeboard which looks like some kind of heirloom which has been there since the inauguration of India Post).

The labyrinth of Postal system was inches away now, as I would soon enter and see, and the familiar machinations of our unique postal system were about to unveil before me. The counter was manned by a woman who is almost the same age and temperament like the one in Delhi and I was surprised to see just one register of philatelic material being kept there. She gave some new issues and told me that this is all that she had and that Hyderabad doesn’t have much of philatelists etc etc

I was somehow dead sure that philately would transform for me once I move in this city, I just needed to persevere and find a way to wedge into the philatelic tombs here.

¹Philatelic History of Hyderabad, M.A.Nayeem, Published by Philatelic Congress of India(PCI) 1980

The roots of the post lie in the still cheap INR 2/- brochures that are released with stamps and contain all the vital stats about them. This includes the dimensions, perforations, number released et cetera.

The attribute that captured my eye was the method employed by the press (India Security Press, Nashik) to print these postage stamps and related postal paraphernalia. This curiosity was accompanied by factual research that I carried out on the postal authorities across the globe, which among other things; included information regarding the technology used to print stamps. Whereas countries a diverse as USA to Bhutan used off-set lithography/printing to impress stamp designs on paper, India still adhered to the photogravure technology to print stamps.

This in an obvious and logical turn of events led to research on these technologies and their pros and cons. The aim was to evaluate how avant garde we are when it comes to cutting edge printing methods and where do we stand vis a vis other countries in terms of the quality of print that we churn out .

Photogravure:

Photogravure is an intaglio printmaking process (family of printmaking techniques in which the image is incised into a surface, known as the matrix or plate initially developed in the 1830s by Henry Fox Talbot in England and Nicéphore Niépce in France).

Photogravure was developed to provide an archivally permanent way of reproducing a photographic image. Because of its high quality and richness, photogravure was used for both original fine art prints and for photo-reproduction of works from other media such as paintings.

Photogravure registers an extraordinary variety of tones, through the transfer of etching ink from an etched copperplate to special dampened paper run through an etching press. The unique tonal range comes from photogravure’s variable depth of etch, that is, the shadows are etched many times deeper than the highlights. Unlike half-tone processes which merely vary the size of dots, the actual quantity and depth of ink wells are varied in a photogravure plate and are often blended into a smooth tone by the printing process.

Though one of the earliest methods of coming closest to taking a photograph (it predates the daguerrotype too) it was usually a method employed to print by hand. I haven’t yet researched as how this process (intricate, time consuming and fine as it is) has been automated to print blocks of stamps by India Security Press.

History of Press:

The history of press follows the following chronological sequence and it is interestinga nd worthwhile to compare the dates of both photogravure and off-set printing

Part of the series on the
History of printing
Woodblock printing 200 CE
Movable type 1040
Intaglio 1430s (photogravure is an Intaglio class process developed in 1830s)
Printing press 1439
Lithography 1796
Chromolithography 1837
Rotary press 1843
Flexography 1873
Mimeograph 1876
Linotype typesetting 1886
Offset press 1903
Screen-printing 1907
Dye-sublimation 1957
Photocopier 1960s
Pad printing 1960s
Laser printer 1969
Dot matrix printer 1970
Thermal printer
Inkjet printer 1976
3D printing 1986
Stereolithography 1986
Digital press 1993

There are almost a century between the discovery and advent of both the technologies with most of the countries following the off-set printing technology for Philatelic materials.

After delving into the history and basics of photogravure its essential to see the technology in modern light, to find if it has become so archaic that it is bound to a museum exhibit orhas it changed over all those years to become a printing technology that has withstood the test of time.

Two modern day exponents of photogravure are the experimental print lab Graphicstudio and the veteran photographer Mark Katzman (whose eponymously named www.photogravure.com is the best resource on the technology).

With specific relevance to stamp printing and design details aren’t available,  but yes it is one of the ways of producing a very high quality design with different levels of depth in the photogravured image.

Sources:

Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

www.photogravure.com

Linns.com, Determining printing methods can confuse anyone, Rachel Supinger 2001© Linns

Books:

COPPER PLATE PHOTOGRAVURE

By David Morrish, Sir Wilfred Grenfell College, Memorial University of Newfoundland
&  Marlene MacCallum, Sir Wilfred Grenfell College, Memorial University of Newfoundland

Paperback, 224 pages, publication date: APR-2003
ISBN-13: 978-0-240-80527-6
ISBN-10: 0-240-80527-5
Imprint: FOCAL PRESS

Philately has struck a chord and the vibrations generated by the flutter have sent warning signals of interference to my other blog of haphazard musings, randomswitch.

This was the reason behind conception of The Philatelist, where all the postage stamp sized ideas and activity would/should converge.

This would also make it easier for a beginner and a seasoned Philatelist to ask questions or emend, respectively; giving a broader spectrum to this space. I would try and fill the space at regular intervals.