Interesting accumulation of stamps from the Indian Native States including a mix of Convention States and Feudatory States issues. The lot contains mostly used stamps along with some unused examples and includes a variety of regular postage and official issues.
Several stamps bear SERVICE and O.S. (On Service) overprints, making the group appealing to collectors of Indian official stamps and postal administration material.
The collection appears to include material from states such as: BHOPAL, CHARDRA, CHOCHIN, CHARKARI, GWAILOR, INDORE, HYDERABAD, PATIALA, JIND, TRAVANSCORE, etc.
Prior to India's independence in 1947, hundreds of princely states operated under varying degrees of British supervision. Stamp issues from these states are divided into two major collecting areas.
Convention States were princely states that used British India stamps with overprints identifying the state, such as Chamba, Gwalior, Jind, Nabha, and Patiala.
Feudatory States produced their own independent stamp issues. These often feature distinctive local designs, scripts, and postal markings and are highly collected for their historical and regional significance.
Together they represent one of the most fascinating areas of Indian postal history and offer collectors insight into the diverse political and postal systems that existed throughout the Indian subcontinent before national unification.