Lot 140
1883 2nd rejected essay set PATIALA STATE in seriffed letters SG 1-6var
Stamps & Covers of Asia | S24007
Auction: 18 June 2024 at 11:00 BST
Description
1883 ‘PATIALA STATE’ 2nd rejected essay overprints all seriffed letters in red on 1866-76 4a Die II & 6a, 1882-90 ½a, 1a, 1a6p, 2a, 3a, 8a & 1r, without gum, without doubt, these remarkable essays are great rarities, whose importance far exceeds beyond any particular state being the genesis articles of Convention States philately. Ex. SGA (5869 5.12.2012 Lot 586), moreover the 8a & 1r being, Ex. Rose-Hutchinson (RL 12.10.1949 Lot 535) & Ex. Dawson (RL 9.11.1966 Lot 471)
The Director General of Posts of India in 1882 observed that something should be done to reform the very faulty arrangement's for the ‘’exchange of correspondence, especially of money orders between the Imperial Post Office and the Patiala State'' This was the birth of all the Conventions, when the concept of surcharging current stamps was first proposed. The Regency Council ( as the then Maharaja was in his minority) generally approved of the draft convention and essays with the words ‘Patiala State’ surcharged in red across the stamp ‘’one above the other, Patiala being placed across the chin and immediately behind the ear in the profile''. Concerns were raised however that the surcharge obscured the Queen's profile. A sample was later submitted where the overprint was curved, thus avoiding disfiguration of the Sovereign's image.
