Scan or Photo Courtesy of Gowtham BJ
Date
7 May 1855
Description
CACHETS: 1855 (May 7) Entire to Madras with 1854 1/2a blue, close to fine margins, tied by type 1 dotted lozenge (9×7 dots), reverse with unrecorded “SHEEMOGA / POST PAID” box hs and GPO ds, missing backflap, rare 1855 (May 5) Entire letter written from The Baha Booden Hills, Mysore, to Dr Balfour at the Museum in Madras, endorsed "stamped ½ anna", posted two days later at Sheemooga bearing 1854 ½a (die II, four margins) tied by a rhomboid of dots, backstamped boxed "SHEEMOOGA / POST PAID" with manuscript date below. The writer, Dr H.R Oswald, has sent a specimen of Load Stone from the Booden Hills to the museum in Madras; Dr Edward Balfour has annotated the letter "Silicious Iron Ore from Mysore Hills, highly magnetic, the ore and quartz in alternate seems". Hammond Giles shows a similar "Post Not Paid" handstamp for Sheemooga (recorded 1836); this Post Paid handstamp previously unrecorded, but probably also originally used in the prestamp period. Photo on Page 90
Auction
Provenance
Spink Ex Topaz Argyll Etkin
Same office
Other recorded marks at Sheemooga
2 marks2 other pre-1854 postal markings of Sheemooga are recorded in the census. Compare their figure numbers, dates and colours to identify the mark on your cover.
About this record
This 7 May 1855 pre stamp cover of British India bears the Sheemooga HG 3 handstamp of the Madras Presidency, a mark with 1 example recorded in this census — the only surviving cover with this mark recorded so far. It has appeared at auction with David Feldman, May 2014 Auction Series, lot 20402, (Mon 26 May 2014); Argyll Etkin, Auction Number 54 of G.B & Worldwide Stamps and Postal History, lot 616, (25th Apr 2024).