Past’s imprint

Saurabh Chadha

In today’s age of rapid technological changes in communication, postage stamps are vital remnants of a bygone era. These seemingly insignificant objects played an essential role in a complex and vast communication network that spread across the world. From their original role as payments to help transfer messages, stamps were also used to facilitate revenue collection, taxation and served other fiscal purposes. Apart from their practical usage, several states utilised stamps as a way of celebrating the material heritage and culture of the issuing region. The use of exquisite calligraphy, multifarious languages and architectural tropes demonstrate the far-reaching influence of the erstwhile state of Hyderabad.

Hyderabad, one of the seniormost princely states in colonial India, printed its own stamps from 1869 onwards until it became a part of the Indian Union in 1949. An exhibition at Bikaner House in Delhi presents rare stamps from the Ewari family philately collection. The genesis of this collection begins with the legacy of Nawab Iqbal Hussain Khan, the Postmaster General in the government of the 7th Nizam of Hyderabad, Mir Osman Ali Khan. The collection today consists of more than 3 million stamps and includes unusual and representative pieces from across the former princely states.

It has important holdings from around the world, including the Penny Black, the world’s first stamp issued in 1840. These include handwritten, calligraphed and illuminated letters in several scripts, postcards, monogrammed envelopes, notes and seals, greeting and invitation cards and besides a wide repository of blind stamps, wet stamps and other stamping formats across several printed mediums that were popular tools of communication and revenue in the not so distant past.

“The collection also has a rich holding of related material, culture and ephemera that are vestiges of a changed world,” says Pramod Kumar KG, curator and managing director of Eka Archiving. The exhibition, Property of a Gentleman, has been presented by the Gujral Foundation.

Particular highlights in the exhibition include the first stamp issued by the Nizam’s government in Hyderabad; a wide range of postage stamps that evolved over a period of time in different colours, values, inscriptions and sizes; stamps featuring monuments from across the Nizam’s expansive dominion as well as the last stamp issued by the princely state of Hyderabad.

Other noteworthy stamps include the extraordinary Penny Black (the first adhesive postage stamp in the world), and a remarkable King George VI series of Indian postage stamps depicting different modes of transportation used to deliver mail. The collection also includes exceptional stamps issued in Hyderabad to commemorate the victory of the Allied Powers in the Second World War.

The objects on display include original postage stamps from Hyderabad ranging from individual stamps to entire stamp sheets, as well as valuable and related ephemera such as original letters, postcards, revenue stamps of the region, erroneous stamps, seals and monograms.